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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Red Wings shut out struggling Avalanche
By PAT GRAHAM
AP Sports Writer
DENVER (AP) -- Detroit Red Wings forward Aaron Downey felt he had to deliver a little on-ice justice.
That's why he went after Ian Laperriere twice in Detroit's 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom was slammed into the boards by Laperriere in the first period, and hobbled off the ice with a knee injury. Downey took offense to the hit and went after Laperriere later in the period, and the two exchanged blows before being separated, both drawing penalties for fighting.
They squared off again in front of Detroit's bench early in the third period. The two then argued through the glass in the penalty box as they served 10-minute majors.
''Fair justice is fair justice,'' said Downey, whose team snapped a six-game winless streak. ''I'm not going to run their guys, but I'll go out there and get him back. We can't be running the superstars out of our game.''
Laperriere didn't understand what all the fuss was about. There was no penalty called on the play.
''I play hard,'' Laperriere said. ''Hopefully, he's going to be OK. I respect him a lot.''
The Red Wings didn't know the extent of the injury to Lidstrom, who came in leading all defenseman with 57 points. Detroit coach Mike Babcock didn't think it was too serious.
''He'll probably end up with a few days off,'' Babcock said. ''I don't know if he's going to be out a week or 10 days. I wasn't very impressed with what happened.''
In other NHL games, it was: the New York Islanders 3, San Jose 2; New Jersey 5, Carolina 1; and Phoenix 4, Los Angeles 0.
At Denver, Babcock had to be impressed with the play of Chris Osgood, who broke out of his funk as he earned his 47th career shutout by stopping 18 shots. The All-Star goalie entered having been pulled from his last two starts after giving up a combined seven goals.
''Things were going so well for four months,'' he said. ''I wasn't expecting that to keep up the entire season. But then I wasn't expecting it to be that bad for two games. It evens out and tonight I got a shutout and it gets you back in the swing of things.''
Henrik Zetterberg scored two goals 2:16 apart in the second period, his 34th and 35th of the season. Pavel Datsyuk had three assists, giving him 51 this season and a share of the league lead.
''We really needed the win,'' Zetterberg said. ''We came out strong. Even though we lost our best player, from start to end, we played a good game.''
Chris Chelios scored his first goal in four months and Valtteri Filppula had a power-play goal in the opening period for Detroit.
The Red Wings swept the four-game season series with Colorado. It's only the second time Detroit has swept the Avalanche since they moved to Denver in 1995-96.
Colorado scored just two goals against the Red Wings this season with Dominik Hasek, who's currently out with a hip injury, picking up two shutouts.
When asked about the current state of the Avalanche, Laperriere just shook his head. The Avalanche have dropped four in a row, and four straight at home.
''Not too good,'' he said. ''You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that. We need to get back to the basics.''
Laperriere said he understood the wrath of Downey and the rest of the Red Wings.
''I know where Aaron is coming from,'' Laperriere said. ''I've been there. I've been around long enough to know that when one of their best players gets hurt, they will come after you. But I think it was a clean hit.''
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