NHL | Wings, Hasek shut out Ducks, take series lead
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Tomas Holmstrom scored twice and had an assist, and the Detroit Red Wings took control early on the way to a 5-0 victory last night over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Tomas Holmstrom scored twice and had an assist, and the Detroit Red Wings took control early on the way to a 5-0 victory last night over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
Dominik Hasek made 29 saves, and the Red Wings scored three times on 13 shots against Anaheim's Jean-Sebastien Giguere to take a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series and regain home-ice advantage.
Game 4 is tomorrow night in Anaheim.
The 42-year-old Hasek logged his second shutout of this year's playoffs and the 14th of his career. He had eight during this regular season to run his total to 76, so he has a combined 90 in regular season and postseason play.
Johan Franzen opened the scoring 11 minutes, 9 seconds in, Holmstrom got his first goal of the night at 19:17 of the period, and Todd Bertuzzi made it 3-0 at 3:17 of the second. Ilya Bryzgalov replaced Giguere, and Holmstrom greeted the Ducks' backup goalie by scoring on a rebound just 17 seconds after he took over.
Valtteri Filppula, who earlier had an assist, capped the scoring midway through the third period. Holmstrom assisted on the goal.
Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg each had two assists for the Red Wings.
Holmstrom left the game at 11:40 of the second period after the Ducks' Rob Niedermayer and Chris Pronger simultaneously slammed him into the glass. The Detroit forward, who had just lost the puck before he was hit, spent several moments lying on the ice with the team's trainers tending to him.
Holmstrom finally got up and went off to have two cuts on his forehead stitched up. He returned to start the third period.
Niedermayer drew a five-minute major for boarding and was ejected, but Detroit was unable to score on the long power play. The Red Wings had 13 minutes of power-play time on five advantages in the second period but didn't score. They were 1 for 9 overall.
Holmstrom scored his second goal of the game and fifth of this year's playoffs when he knocked in a rebound of Filppula's wraparound. Holmstrom's first came on a power play when he beat Giguere with a 30-foot slap shot.
Franzen, skating down just to the left of the crease, took a centering pass from Mikael Samuelsson from the right boards and one-timed the puck past Giguere for his third goal of the playoffs.
Bertuzzi made it 3-0 when the puck deflected off his left skate and into the net. A cross-ice pass from Holmstrom to Filppula resulted in the final goal.
The power-play goal by Holmstrom was the first the Ducks have allowed at home in these playoffs after killing off 33 short-handed situations. Anaheim is 0 for 31 on the power play in its last five games.