Osgood, Stillman lead Blues past Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Chris Osgood is averaging one shutout per week for the Blues.

Osgood stopped 31 shots and Cory Stillman scored the game's only goal as the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 1-0 Wednesday night. It was the second shutout for Osgood since he was traded to St. Louis from the New York Islanders on March 11.

It was the fourth shutout of the season for Osgood, who blanked the Nashville Predators 1-0 on March 15 in his first start with Blues.

"I've felt really good since I came here," Osgood said. "I've got a lot of confidence in the forwards and defensemen I have here because I know they're going to work hard to block shots, and they did that again tonight."

The Blues snapped a two-game losing streak, and moved into a tie with Colorado for fourth place in the Western Conference. Both the Blues and Avalanche have six games remaining, and play each other in Denver in the regular-season finale.

Minnesota has now lost two in a row, both shutouts, after clinching the team's first-ever playoff berth on Sunday night.

"It's best that this happens now instead of in the playoffs," Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez said. "We outplayed them tonight and gave them a great fight."

Despite being outshot 6-1 in the opening half of the first period, the Blues managed a goal on just their second shot of the game. A pass from Al MacInnis launched Pavol Demitra and Stillman on a two-on-one break. Demitra carried the puck into the Minnesota zone, drawing defender Filip Kuba and Fernandez to the left of the net. Demitra then flipped the puck to Stillman, who was all alone at the left side of the crease. Stillman tapped the puck into the net for his 23rd goal of the season before Fernandez was able to dive across the goal to block it.

"We caught them on a breakdown, which is rare," Stillman said. "Pavol faked a shot and held the goalie for as long as he could, so when I got the pass I had a wide open net. We're not going to get many two-on-ones on that team."

Minnesota's best scoring opportunity came midway through the third period when Wild scoring leader Marian Gaborik got the puck at the top of the crease. With a defender on him, Gaborik got off a backhand shot that bounced off the left post and landed behind Osgood before being cleared away.

"In a good game we usually get 14 or 15 scoring chances," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "Tonight we got maybe 18, it was one of our best games offensively. But both goalies were really good."

Fernandez had 26 saves for Minnesota.

Notes: The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team performed the ceremonial puck drop before the game. The Bulldogs defeated Harvard 4-3 in double overtime on Sunday to win their third consecutive NCAA title. ... MacInnis' assist on Stillman's goal was his 50th of the season. MacInnis has now recorded 50 or more assists 10 times in his NHL career. ... The loss snapped a franchise-best five-game home winning streak by the Wild. ... The last time the Wild, who lost 4-0 in Detroit on Tuesday, were shut out in consecutive games was March 14-15, 2001 when they lost 1-0 to St. Louis and 3-0 to Philadelphia.