Osgood Becomes 10th Goalie In History To Reach 400 Wins

Added on Dec 28, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

Monday nights game was special for Chris Osgood, as he became the 10th goalie in NHL history to reach the 400 game plateau. Osgood tied his career high with 46 saves in a 4-3 Overtime victory against long time rivals the Colorado Avalanche.

Obviously Osgood would have preferred to get his 400th win on the ice at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, but he said he was excited when he found he was playing in Colorado. He said “I was excited when I knew I was playing here. I played in the old rink, McNichols, and in this one. We have a lot of fans here. That made it special. To win it here, I always loved playing here. I like everything about this place. That was exciting for me. I would have loved to win it at the Joe, but this will do. I’ve played a lot of games here and the Wings have a lot of fans here. It was a relief to finally get it.”

There were plenty of Wings fans out of 18,007 people in attendance who got to watch Ozzie who is now 400-216-95 in 742 career games. Through out the game, and especially in the second period when he stopped all 23 of the Avs shots, chants of “Ozzie, Ozzie” could be heard.

Osgood alluded to the fact that he spent so much time playing, that he forgot all about the stakes of getting his 400th win. He has been trying to get this one for a while now. He said “I didn’t have an opportunity to think about it. I was just playing. You try to put it out of your mind and go play. But it never works that way sometimes. Just the way it’s been my entire career. Nothing ever comes easy.”

Wings captain Niklas Lindstrom said after the game, “He played at the top of his game and to get the win must be an awesome feeling for him. I think it makes it even better when you’re playing such a strong game as he did.” Lindstrom, who also had a goal that gave the Wings a 3-2 lead in third, was happy Osgood got the 400, but also felt the team stepped up. He continued “It’s a great win for us, finally getting that 400. I thought the team battled hard and he kept us in the game, especially in the second period when they came after us hard and spent a lot of time in our zone. He came up big for us and it’s a well-deserved win for him.”

Osgood was still his worst critic after the game, and he said he felt a tight early in the game. He said “I felt a little rusty early because of Christmas break, but I felt really good at about the 10-minute mark. I would like to have the second one back, but that was already done and I just focused on trying to shut the door from that point on and give the guys an opportunity to win.”

He also felt that the team showed the league its true mettle after playing in Minnesota the night before. “Our guys just dug down and I thought we played real well in the third. I mean, we dug down deep and battled after playing last night in Minnesota. I was relieved, for sure. I’ve been working at this for a while now. I wasn’t really thinking about it as much as I was in previous games. I just wanted to give us a chance. We have a good team and a good power play, and our power play won us the game.”

Osgood wasn’t selling the Avalanche short, and realized how explosive they can be. He said “They’ve scored a ton of goals this year. They have a good offense, so I had to be ready. I anticipated they would have some shots on net and I was ready for it. In the second we couldn’t get the puck out of our zone. We just weathered the storm.”

Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock thought Osgood really came and through, and saved the day. He thought Osgood really picked up the slack, he said “I thought Ozzie set the tone. We didn’t skate. We weren’t very good. But Ozzie hung in there.”

The Detroit Red Wings (23-9-4, 50 pts), who are currently 1st in Central Division, will face the Dallas Stars (21-11-4, 46pts) tonight in Dallas. The Colorado Avalanche (19-12-5, 43 pts), who are currently 2nd in Northwest Division, will face the Edmonton Oilers (12-16-6, 30pts) Thursday night in Edmonton .