Osgood gears up for the playoffs Wings Hockey

Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood was impressive for the second time in two days, stopping 53 of 56 shots against two teams battling for their playoff lives.
Osgood made 21 saves in a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday in Detroit, and he made 32 saves in a 4-1 victory at Buffalo on Monday night.

"They were tough games," Osgood said. "Buffalo came at us real hard. We weathered the storm."

The Sabres outshot the Wings, 12-5, in the first 10 minutes, but the Sabres didn't score until the Wings had built a 3-0 lead midway through the third period.

"It's a good game for us going into the playoffs," Osgood said. "Gets us as playoff-ready as possible."

The Wings took Tuesday off. Osgood will be in goal again Thursday against the visiting Nashville Predators. Coach Mike Babcock gave Osgood the choice of games in the season-ending home-and-home this weekend, and Osgood said he would start Sunday in Chicago.

"I'd rather play Sunday, on the road, and get in a lot of work," Osgood said. "Get ready for next week."

Osgood's latest victory was No. 289, tying him for 10th place on the NHL's all-time goaltender wins list with former teammate Dominik Hasek.

"I respect Dom a ton," Osgood said. "He taught me a ton -- how to work in practice and how to never give up until the very end. He was a great, great player."

Osgood ranked Hasek, Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy as the best goaltenders of his era.

Big E gets tough: Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson continues to impress in different ways. In the final minute of the second period Monday, the Sabres took exception to a hit by Valtteri Filppula, and the teams got into a scrum. Filppula and Mikael Samuelsson for the Wings and Derek Roy for the Sabres each drew roughing penalties, and Ericsson and Buffalo's Drew Stafford each took 5-minute fighting penalties.

Ericsson, who had a wrist injury earlier this season, got in a few punches while taking Stafford down to the ice, impressing his coach.

"Big E's got the bad hand, otherwise you'd see more than that," Babcock said. "He can look after himself. As you can see, he's a really good player, and he gets better each and every outing. Anytime you've got a 6-foot-5, puck-moving defenseman that can be physical, he's going to play for our team for a long, long time."
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