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Wings Stay Hot in L.A.

LOS ANGELES – Chris Osgood made 27 saves in his third shutout of the season, and Detroit got goals from Tomas Holmstrom, Mikael Samuelsson and Johan Franzen to beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Tuesday night.

In a matchup of NHL's best and worst teams, the Red Wings improved to 36-10-4 for 76 points. It was the fourth shutout loss by the Kings, who have 40 points and have won only one of the last 18 meetings with Detroit.

Osgood, who will play in his fourth All-Star game on Sunday, shaved his league-leading goals-against average down to 1.87 with his 46th career shutout. The victory was his 356th, edging him past former Kings goaltender Rogie Vachon for 15th place all-time.

The Red Wings played without leading scorer Henrik Zetterberg, whose sore back also will keep him out of Wednesday night's game at Anaheim and next Sunday's All-Star Game in Atlanta. Defenseman Chris Chelios, who became the second-oldest player to appear in an NHL game on Jan. 8, was rested three days shy of his 46th birthday. He usually doesn't play on back-to-back nights, and wasn't about to miss Wednesday night's showdown with the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks.

The Red Wings came in averaging a league-high 34.7 shots on net, 11 more per game than their opponents. They were outshot 7-0 by the Kings over the first six minutes, but scored on their second shot of the game to take the lead at 6:57 of the opening period.

Holmstrom, who turns 35 Wednesday, beat Jason LaBarbera to the glove side with a 15-foot wrist shot for his 19th goal after Pavel Datsyuk threw a cross-ice pass into the slot.

Matt Ellis, inserted into the lineup because of Zetterberg's injury, set up Detroit's second goal at 14:47 of the second period. He worked the puck away from Derek Armstrong at the Detroit blue line and fed it ahead to Samuelsson, who beat LaBarbara high to the glove side with a 25-foot wrist shot from the right circle for his eighth of the season.

Samuelsson, who missed Monday's practice because of flu-like symptoms, set up Franzen's ninth goal with 17:05 remaining. He took a shot that went wide of the net, but Franzen played the carom off the end boards and stuffed the puck inside the right post while LaBarbera and defenseman Brad Stuart were trying to smother it in the crease.

Atlanta’s Marian Hossa wrecked havoc on Osgood, completing his seventh-career hat trick before the game was half old. The Thrashers went on to win 5-1, leaping from outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture into first place in the Southeast Division.

Seven minutes into the game, Hossa wrestled the puck out of the corner on the power play and skated untouched past defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom en route to the net. Hossa outwaited Osgood, who dropped and allowed Hossa’s snapshot goal.

On his second, Hossa caught Brett Lebda fumbling the puck at the Wings' blueline. Hossa’s wrister from the left faceoff circle eluded Osgood’s catching glove for the 2-0 lead at 14:22 of the first.

Hossa completed the magic just over a minute into the second period. With six seconds left in an Atlanta power play, Hossa -- locked between four Red Wings -- found the top shelf.

Atlanta center Eric Perrin stretched the lead to 4-0, poking a loose puck past Osgood on a power play at 7:14 of the second. That was the end for Osgood.

But as unusual as the Osgood off night was the Red Wings’ offensive goose egg. Detroit had only been shut out one other time this season, a 2-0 blanking on New Year’s Eve against St. Louis.

After Hasek relieved Osgood, the Wings held the Thrashers shot-less for the remainder of the second period, while peppering goalie Kari Lehtonen with 19 shots of their own. Lehtonen didn’t flinch, and the score remained 4-0 through two periods.

Even leading-scorer Henrik Zetterberg couldn’t corral the puck while staring at an empty net midway through the third. Lehtonen stopped Zetterberg on a spectacular left pad save with just over six minutes left before Niklas Kronwall broke the shutout. Lehtonen stopped 46 shots.

Former Red Wings' forward Slava Kozlov tipped a shot past Hasek — a player he was once traded for — to settle the score at 5-1 with a minute left in the game.

“The key is to make sure we don’t elongate this thing,” Osgood said. “We don’t want start thinking about the bad bounces and think that they’ll happen.”