Ozzie Blanks The Bruins While Recording 50th Career Shoutout

It was vintage Chris Osgood Tuesday night at the Joe , as the Wings shut down the Boston Bruins, 2-0. These two Original Six teams met for the first and only time of the season, as Red Wing fans witnessed their veteran net-minder put on a dazzling display of goal-tending. 

Chris Osgood notched his 50th shutout of his career, and won his 310th game, a win that firmly cemented Ozzie in the top ten list of the winningnest goalies of all time. 

Ozzie looked like the goalkeeper yester-years, reminiscent of the "Hockey Town" days of Red Wing lore. Chris turned away all 29 shots, frustrating the Bruins, and looked great doing it.

The fans were in awe of Osgood's dramatic saves, one after another, as the Wings thwarted every scoring opportunity the Bruins could muster. The Beantown scoring attack has struggled a bit in the last three games, only netting three pucks over the last nine periods of play. 

The Bruins, 4th place in the Northeast Division, came into the Joe with a mark of 6-6-1, in need of a win.

The Red Wings, who are currently 3rd in the Central, two spots behind the Chicago Blackhawks, got what they were looking for... a quality win against a good team.

Defense was the theme of the game last night, but the Wings managed to slip two past former Vezina Trophy winner, Tim Thomas, who stopped 27 of 29 shots faced.

A botched face off by the Bruins' Center, Patrice Bergeron, allowed Henrik (Hank) Zetterberg to net the first goal of the game in the first period. The Wings jumped out to an early lead 1-nil.

The stingy defensive efforts put forth by the Boston Bruins kept the Wings at bay in the second period, and it was still 1-0 going into the third.

Pavel Datsyuk's beautiful backhand pass in the third period set Tomas Holmstrom up nicely for the second tally, 2-zip Wings. This is the type of play we've come to expect from Pavel, penetrating the defense and creating scoring chances. Pavel has gotten off to a slow start in the first month of the 2009-10 season, but he looked to be in mid-season form last night.

The solid defense from the Detroit blue liners kept the Bruins from dictating the pace of the game, which always works in favor of the Wings. Detroit played their fast and physical style of hockey, and kept the Bruins away from the front of the net for the majority of the night.

The head-lining act  of the game was without a doubt Chris Osgood's goal-tending clinic. Ozzie has been a main stay of the Wings' franchise for some time, and he was dominant between the pipes, just ask the Bruins. The Bruins are the only team to have a winning record against the Wings this decade (10-4-1).

With the victory, the RedWings improve to 6-4-3, and the Bruins drop to 6-7-1. The Wings out shot the Bruins 29-26, and moved one step closer to the division leading and bitter rival, Chicago Blackhawks.