Red Wings attack early, down Devils for second straight win

Red Wings attack early, down Devils for second straight win

Published Dec. 11, 2010 8:27 p.m. ET

-- You never want to give a bad team any hope. Get them down early, and they usually won't put up much of a struggle.

That's exactly what the Red Wings did Saturday, scoring early and skating to a 4-1 victory over the struggling Devils.

Tomas Holmstrom (28 seconds into the game) and Danny Cleary (1 minute 42 seconds) scored 1:14 apart against shell-shocked Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.

Holmstrom deflected Pavel Datsyuk's shot past Brodeur on the game's first shift.

"We had good start, we don't always start like that," said Datsyuk, who had a goal and two assists. "First time in my career we scored on the first shift. Nice to have that."The Wings (19-6-3, 41 points) never looked back, while winning their second consecutive game after a three-game winless stretch.

Henrik Zetterberg added his 10th goal and Datsyuk his 11th later in the game. The Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Holmstrom line accounted for seven points (three goals and four assists).

"The bounces kind of went our way," Zetterberg said. "From the start, with Tomas tipping it. It was that kind of night."But scoring on the first shift?

"It's been a while since that happened. It makes it a little easier," Zetterberg said. "We kind of played on that the whole game and when they had chances, Ozzie (Chris Osgood) made some huge saves.

"It was a good road win."Osgood made the goals stand up with career victory No. 399. Osgood, who had 33 saves, is seeking to become the 10th goalie to reach the 400 win milestone.

Osgood got the best of the Hall of Fame-bound Brodeur (19 saves) and the lowly Devils. Osgood seemed to get stronger as the game went on.

"I don't approach any game as easy and I don't look at the other team's record," Osgood said. "They can turn it around quickly. I felt good because I only played a week ago. There wasn't any rust. It was huge for us to get the two goals early."As for the opportunity to secure win No. 400 some time this week: "It feels good to have the opportunity to finally get there," Osgood said. "I set myself up for a chance."The only Devils goal was on the power play by Patrik Elias 39 seconds into the third period. New Jersey (8-19-2, 18 points) has lost five consecutive games and six of seven.

"That's not easy," said Devils coach John MacLean of falling behind 2-0 in the game's first 1:42. "That's not a good way to start. The first one was a tip. We did some good things. You struggle to get back into it and keep battling.

"We made some mistakes and a team like Detroit capitalizes on mistakes when you make them."

Dec. 12, 2010

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