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Wings blank Kings Osgood stops 19 shots in Detroit's 2-0 win
Posted: Wednesday May 10, 2000 11:10 PM DETROIT (CNNSI.com) -- One game into the playoffs, and it's apparent that these could be two teams headed in opposite directions. Slava Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov scored the goals and Chris Osgood made 19 saves to earn his seventh career playoff shutout as the Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-0. "We got a hot goalie tonight," said Luc Robitaille, whose hard shot from the slot with less than seven minutes left was perhaps Osgood's biggest save. "You've got to be patient. You've got to wait your chances with those guys." Kozlov, who scored 18 goals during the regular season, scored at 1:43 of the second period on a shot that hit Los Angeles defenseman Jere Karalahti in the back and caromed into the net past goalie Stephane Fiset. Fedorov, who had 27 goals this season, scored into an empty net with 12.8 seconds remaining. "That was basically a one-goal game," said Kings forward Bryan Smolinski, playing with a brace on the injured right knee that had kept him out of action since April 3. "I don't think any momentum shifted tonight." Fiset, who faced 31 shots, was pulled with 1:23 remaining, but returned with 59.2 seconds left for a faceoff near the red line. He reached the bench again with 41.2 seconds remaining. "We can play better," Kings defenseman Rob Blake said. "We've got to get a little more traffic around Osgood. You know, in the playoffs, they're not all going to be pretty goals." Steve Yzerman, who was expected to return from a mild knee sprain that kept him out of the final four regular-season games, instead sat out with a bout of the flu. Yzerman, the Red Wings captain, was the team's leading scorer this season with 39 goals and 44 assists for 79 points -- one more than Brendan Shanahan. As the game unfolded, however, it looked like Yzerman was perhaps better off watching instead of playing. The contest turned into a hard-hitting affair that left bodies strewn all over the ice. Detroit forward Darren McCarty, who missed about a third of the season because of a contract holdout and an injury that required surgery, delivered perhaps the Red Wings' hardest check of the season when he slammed Garry Galley into the boards behind the Kings' net at 2:10 of the first period. The Kings got some payback at 7:03 when Blake's hipcheck left Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom face down on the ice for about a minute. Holmstrom finally skated off with the aid of a trainer. Meanwhile, the Red Wings -- gunning for their third Stanley Cup title in four years -- were skating with an intensity almost never seen during the regular season. Detroit outshot the Kings 12-4 during the period, including three quality shots that Fiset -- who was 2-0-1 against the Red Wings during the season -- was able to turn away during the Red Wings' first power play. "It felt really good out there," Fedorov said. "I thought we were feeling the pulse of the game, and when you do that, you are able to make a lot of plays. It's a nice feeling." Except for Kozlov's fluke goal, the game might have remained scoreless through the second period because Fiset and Osgood were both brilliant at times. Osgood made a clutch save to rob Smolinski who snapped off a shot from between the circles at 6:50 of the second after Fedorov had misplayed the puck. Fiset came up big again during a Detroit power play in the third, managing somehow to get the handle of his stick on the puck inches from the goal line after a shot by Shanahan at 8:52. With 5:11 remaining, Fiset held off Brent Gilchrist who skated in alone on a breakaway. "You get no chance to relax out there," Fiset said. Just before a faceoff with 2:11 remaining, an octopus was tossed onto the ice from the stands, an old symbol of Detroit playoff success from the days when the NHL was a six-team league. The Red Wings went 48-24-10 during the regular season, finishing with 108 points. Yet one of the teams that gave Detroit a lot of trouble was the Kings. Los Angeles finished with a 39-31-12 record and 94 points, fourth-best in franchise history and 20 points better than in 1999. And the Kings were 2-2-1 against Detroit. "When the defense clears rebounds, and keeps bodies away from the front of the net, it makes my life a whole lot easier," Osgood said. "I'm not scrambling around looking for the puck when the defense and I are working this well together."
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