RED WINGS RIP SABRES TO KEEP PRESSURE ON SHARKS

The Detroit Red Wings are still within striking distance of the NHL’s Western Conference crown by virtue of a 4-1 road victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night.  It was Detroit’s 7^th win in their last eight road contests and left the team four points behind the idle San Jose Sharks for conference supremacy. 

Monday’s contest was closely contested for two periods.  After a scoreless first period, Brad Stuart got Detroit on the board when he scored on the power play at 18:41 of the second session assisted by Marian Hossa and Tomas Holmstrom.  Hossa would go to work himself in the third period, scoring at the :36 mark assisted by Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg and again at 9:17 assisted by Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom.  The Sabres would get one back less than a minute later when Paul Gaustad lit the lamp assisted by Adam Mair and Craig Rivet.  They could get no closer, however, and the Wings would put them away for good at the 19:23 mark when Nicklas Lidstrom scored into an empty net. 

Detroit goalie Chris Osgood made 32 saves to earn the victory, which tied him for 10^th on the NHL’s all time victory list with Dominik Hasek at 389—ironically, in Buffalo where ‘The Dominator’ played most of his career.  Afterwards, Osgood discussed the milestone:

"I don't know a lot of things, but I knew that today that I could tie Dom here, so that's pretty cool. It's a great honor for me to be mentioned with a goalie of his stature. To do it here is a little more special."

He also talked about the night after night intensity down the stretch in the regular season:

"These are difficult games. Everybody we seem to be playing of late seem to be on the brink of making it or fighting somebody else for a playoff spot. It's good games for us going into the playoffs. It gets us as playoff-ready as possible."

Buffalo is still technically in playoff contention, but they’re going to have an uphill battle to make the NHL postseason.  They’re currently in 10^th place, 4 points out of the final playoff spot with only three games to play.  Despite the long odds, Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller insisted that his team hasn’t given up hope:

"It's tough. Until you're mathematically out of it, you can't quit. Even if you are, you can't quit. We put ourselves in a tough spot."

Making things tougher for the Sabres is the fact that two of their final three games are on the road.  They’ll play at Toronto on Wednesday and Carolina on Thursday before hosting the Boston Bruins on Saturday.  Detroit will host the Nashville Predators on Thursday, followed by a pair of games against the Chicago Blackhawks.  The two teams will meet at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Saturday afternoon followed by a rematch on Sunday in Chicago.