Osgood gets #400

Power play, overtime strike give Osgood 400th win
Say what you will about Chris Osgood as a person. But he's in a pretty elite group now, and no one can say he didn't deserve this particular game.

Osgood made 46 saves, including quite a few dazzlers in short succession as part of a 23-save second period, and Detroit scored four power play goals to grab a 4-3 overtime win over Colorado. Niklas Kronwall delivered the game-winning strike that made Osgood just the 10th goalie in NHL history to win 400 games.

Of Osgood's 400 wins, 316 have come with Detroit. He entered the 2009-10 season needing just 11 victories to reach the milestone, but ineffectiveness and the emergence of Jimmy Howard turned a foregone conclusion into a drawn-out event.

Nicklas Lidstrom had a goal and three assists for the Red Wings, which led 3-2 late before conceding Matt Duchene's second goal, on the power play, to force overtime. Kronwall had two points, as did Jiri Hudler (goal and assist) and Johan Franzen also scored.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try, try again
Los Angeles peppered San Jose goalie Antti Niemi with shot after shot through two periods. None went in. Then the wheels came off in the third period for Niemi.

After making 30 saves through two periods, Niemi conceded four goals on seven third-period shots and Los Angeles blanked San Jose, 4-0. Jonathan Quick made 24 saves and Dustin Brown scored twice. The Kings scored three times in the first 6:49 - in a span of 4:41 - of the third period.

Trevor Lewis scored as did Marco Sturm for his first goal of the season and as a King. Anze Kopitar posted three assists.

New York, New York
Woof. From the NHL First Star of the Week to conceding a touchdown. Such is the life of Dwayne Roloson.

Matt Gilroy scored his first goals in 65 games and the floodgates opened as the Rangers scored five times in an 18-minute span to rout the Islanders, 7-2. The Rags out-shot the Islanders by a whopping 52-20 margin, getting at least 16 shots in each period and holding the Islanders to four in each of the final two periods.

After one period, the game was tied 2-2. At 12:08 of the second period, Gilroy scored his second of the game to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. At 10:34 of the third, the lead was 7-2.

Brian Boyle had a goal and two assists, Marian Gaborik, Derek Stepan and Brandon Dubinsky a goal and helper each, and Ruslan Fedotenko also scored for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 18 saves.

In the shootout
--Blake Wheeler scored in round two and Boston upended Florida, 3-2, handing the Panthers' their first loss after regulation. David Krejci scored twice and Tim Thomas made 32 saves. Scott Clemmensen stopped 40 shots in defeat for Florida.
--Columbus overcame a pair of one-goal deficits plus conceding the tying goal to beat Minnesota, 4-3, when Jose Theodore failed to stop anyone in the shootout. Steve Mason made 37 saves in a rare win and Rick Nash had two assists plus a shootout goal for the Blue Jackets.

And finally
Five different players scored as Calgary handed Buffalo a 5-2 defeat. David Moss and Olli Jokinen each had a goal and assist and Miikka Kiprusoff made 25 saves for the Flames.

Thoughts
--Congratulations to Osgood. He was awfully good in that second period tonight.

--One wonders how the hell the Islanders were able to get two goals. Oh yeah, Lundqvist wasn't very good on either goal.

--Given the season-ending injury to Derek Roy, I wonder when we can write off Buffalo as a potential playoff team. Already 10 points back and without its leading scorer. I can't imagine it'll be long.

--On the flip side, can we rule out anyone in the West as possibly making the postseason, even Edmonton?

--OK, yeah, probably Edmonton.

--Big bounceback for Mason. Maybe we can rule out Minnesota now after having lost to Steve Mason. Wonder if that'll kickstart his season. Probably not.

--Quite impressive performance from the Kings.