Blue flu ails Wings
Blue flu ails Wings
Three players out as Detroit falls
January 27, 2007
BY GEORGE SIPPLE
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
ST. LOUIS -- The cold and flu season caught up with the Red Wings, and so did the red-hot Blues.
Bill Guerin scored on a rebound at 1:09 of overtime to beat the Wings, 2-1, Friday night at Scottrade Center. The Blues are 13-2-2 in their past 17 games.
The Wings (30-14-6) were missing forwards Kris Draper and Robert Lang and goaltender Dominik Hasek because of flu, and Valtteri Filppula, who played in the game, was also under the weather.
"We gave up nine scoring chances, did a lot of real good things, but we didn't capitalize offensively," said coach Mike Babcock. "We haven't been, I didn't think, as good on the road here lately. I was pleased with our effort.
"The first game back after break you gotta play everybody. You can't just kill some guys. We have every opportunity. We had some chances there and the puck didn't go in for us."
Draper and Lang didn't make the trip to St. Louis after missing practice Thursday. Hasek fell ill Friday and didn't dress.
Chris Osgood, who made 18 saves, found out around 2 p.m. that he would start, although he said he knew Hasek was ill and prepared as if he might have to play.
The Wings were also without Mikael Samuelsson, who is out with a broken foot, and used a trio of Grand Rapids Griffins forwards -- Matt Ellis, Matt Hussey and Josh Langfeld -- for a fourth line.
The Blues opened the scoring at 8:03 of the second period on center Ryan Johnson's fifth goal of the season.
Osgood made the initial save on a backhand attempt by forward Jamal Mayers, but Johnson got the rebound and fired in his first goal since Dec. 23. He had missed the past 12 games with an upper-body injury.
The Wings answered 1:56 later when forward Johan Franzen scored his sixth goal of the season.
Franzen took a pass from Dan Cleary and raced through the zone. Blues defensemen Dennis Wideman and Jamie Rivers, a former Wing, touched sticks trying to defend Franzen, who got by them and scored.
Franzen upped his consecutive-point streak to three games (two goals, assist) with the marker. Franzen had a three game point streak in late December and a four-game streak in early October.
Cleary ended a five-game scoring drought with the assist, his first since Dec. 18.
The Wings killed all five power-play chances the Blues had and haven't allowed a power-play goal in 25 opportunities the Blues have had against them in five games this season.
Former Wings goaltender Manny Legace made 28 saves as the Blues (20-21-8) beat the Wings for the first time at home since 2002.