DETROIT - Chris Osgood grew up idolizing Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr never thinking he might eclipse him one day in the NHL history books.

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Chris Osgood #30 of the of the Detroit Red Wings covers the puck after stopping a shot while playing the Boston Bruins on November 3, 2009 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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However, the Detroit Red Wings goalie continued his relentless march to catching Fuhr on the all-time wins list by making 29 saves in a 2-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

The victory was the 394th of Osgood's career, leaving him just nine shy of Fuhr, and the shutout was his 50th, placing him second in that category among active netminders.

"I don't put much merit in shutouts," Osgood said. "I grew up watching Grant Fuhr play and he was just about winning games. That's kind of my mentality - just win."

However, there are numbers, Osgood admits, that do matter to him.

Joining the 400-win club and passing Terry Sawchuk's 351 wins in a Detroit uniform are the two personal targets he cherishes.

"I purposely try not to know (how many wins I have) because it makes my mind wander where it doesn't need to be," Osgood said. "I'm focused on playing and those things will take care of themselves.

"Four hundred is big for me, so is trying to be the winningest goalie all-time in Red Wings history."

In the win over the Bruins it was Osgood who was the biggest difference maker on the ice.

He was both good in robbing Marco Sturm and lucky in having Sturm and Zdeno Chara have shots rattle off the post in the game's first 10 minutes. The Bruins had a third shot off the iron in the second period.

"We basically challenged our goaltending to be better and it has been the last couple games," Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

The other difference maker Tuesday was Pavel Datsyuk.

The slippery Russian engineered the game's only two goals in the final six minutes of the opening frame. He now has 10 points in the past seven games.

Datsyuk won a draw on Henrik Zetterberg's opening goal only two seconds into a Detroit power play at 14:21.

The 31-year-old Datsyuk then out-battled Chara entering the Boston zone before dropping a pass back for Tomas Holmstrom to poke one handed into the abandoned cage at 17:43.

"The puck popped loose and he did what Datsyuk does," Bruins goalie Tim Thomas said.

Windsor Star

dwaddell@thestar.canwest.com