Red Wings Find a Way to Shut Out the Blues

The Detroit Red Wings aren’t ready to concede the Western Conference to the St. Louis Blues.

Chris Osgood faced only 13 shots as the Red Wings won the second half of a home-and-home series with St. Louis, ending the Blues’ six-game win streak with a 2-0 victory Thursday night at St. Louis.

“Guys have pride,” Osgood said. “St. Louis beat us pretty bad at home, and we decided enough was enough.”

Martin Lapointe and Nicklas Lidstrom scored for the Red Wings, who ended a three-game losing streak and narrowed the Blues’ lead in the Western Conference to three points.

The Blues ended an eight-game winless streak (0-6-2) at Detroit on Tuesday with a 4-1 victory, but seldom got the puck out of the neutral zone in the rematch.

Washington 1, Montreal 0--Andrei Nikolishin scored in the third period and Olaf Kolzig made the goal stand at Montreal.

Kolzig made 24 saves for his fourth shutout of the season as the Capitals improved to 13-2-3 since Jan. 1.

Colorado 3, Calgary 2--Chris Drury scored on a rebound with 2:56 remaining to cap a third-period rally for the Avalanche at Denver.

Sandis Ozolinsh and Milan Hejduk added goals for the Avalanche, which trailed, 2-0, early in the third period before recovering to beat Calgary for the fourth time this season.

Colorado also ended a 127-minute scoring drought.

Edmonton 3, Philadelphia 2--Bill Guerin scored twice and backup goalie Tommy Salo made 35 saves at Philadelphia.

Sean Brown added a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who won their third straight and picked up their first win in Philadelphia in more than six years.

Buffalo 2, Nashville 1--Jason Woolley scored on a deflection with 51.8 seconds left in overtime to lead the Sabres at Nashville.

Vaclav Varada also scored for the Sabres, who got 27 saves from Dominik Hasek.

New York Islanders 5, Tampa Bay 4--Tim Connolly’s wrist shot at 3:49 of overtime gave the Islanders a win at Uniondale, N.Y.

Around the League

In its first game on ABC, the NHL saw its All-Star game rating rise 23%, back to its 1998 level. Sunday’s 9-4 win by the World All-Stars got a 2.7 rating and six share, Nielsen Media Research said. Last year’s game on Fox got a 2.2 rating and five share, down from a 2.7 in 1998. . . . Adrian Aucoin, the Vancouver Canucks’ top-scoring defenseman, will miss at least five weeks recovering from a sliced tendon in the middle finger of his right hand.