Chris Osgood reached one milestone and approached another one as he helped the Detroit Red Wings blank the Boston Bruins 2-0 Tuesday night.
Osgood made 29 saves for his 50th shutout and 394th career victory.
“I don’t put much merit in shutouts,” he said. “The only thing they’re good for is that you know you have a great chance of winning the game. I grew up watching Grant Fuhr play and he was just about winning games, so that’s kind of my mentality.”
Osgood, though, acknowledged he’s trying not to think about win No. 400 because it “is big for me.”
Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom scored in the first period to generate more than enough offense against a team that is struggling to score and didn’t get any puck luck, hitting the post in both the first and second periods.
The Bruins have not scored in nearly 133 minutes, getting shut out in consecutive games for the first time since March 2007.
“We’re going to have to decide that we’re tired of hearing we had a good effort without winning,” Boston coach Claude Julien said.
The Bruins pulled Tim Thomas with about 1 1/2 minutes left to add an extra skater and called a timeout in the final minute, trying to come up with a way to pull within a goal.
It didn’t happen.
Thomas had 24 saves for Boston, which fell under .500 with their third loss in four games.
“I made a couple of mistakes that ended up costing us,” Thomas said. “We couldn’t put the puck in the net.”
The rebuilding Red Wings are 3-0-1 in their last four games and have a point in seven of their last eight.
“I imagine they looked at us like we looked at them,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “Without (Marc) Savard and (Milan) Lucic, they have big-time players out of the lineup – no different than us.”
LIGHTNING 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1, OT: In Toronto, Ryan Malone scored at 2:21 of overtime to energize Tampa Bay.
Malone tapped in an awkward shot that bounced over Jonas Gustavsson moments after John Mitchell nearly won it for the Maple Leafs on a pretty rush, with the puck nearly taking another funny hop into the goal.
THRASHERS 5, CANADIENS 4: Colby Armstrong scored 13:14 into the third period and Atlanta earned its first regulation win in Montreal in over five years.
PENGUINS 4, DUCKS 3: In Anaheim, Calif., Pascal Dupuis scored the go-ahead goal with 10:47 to play, and Pittsburgh tied an NHL record with their seventh consecutive road victory to open the season.
CANUCKS 4, RANGERS 1: Rick Rypien scored the go-ahead goal 8:48 into the third period, the first of three late goals that lifted host Vancouver.
