ANAHEIM, Calif.(AP)
Tomas Holmstrom finished with two goals, an assist and 13
stitches. Holmstrom scored in each of the first two periods and the
Detroit Red Wings took control early on the way to a 5-0 victory
Tuesday 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 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and regain home-ice
advantage.
Game 4 is Thursday night in Anaheim.
"I think we were successful with all the four lines
going," Holmstrom said. "We started scoring from lots of
guys, too. We had lots of speed.
"We played a really, really solid hockey game. Anaheim will
come out and play a better game next game for sure."
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 lost the puck just
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 and
assisted on Detroit's final goal.
"I got run into the boards, got hit again," he said.
"I never saw the guy come from behind."
The medical staff made sure he didn't have a concussion.
"Get stitched up, yeah, I was ready for the third,"
Holmstrom said.
Niedermayer drew a five-minute major for boarding and was
ejected.
"I was very surprised about the call," he said.
"All I did was take a few strides, finish my check and hit him
with my shoulder.
"You don't want to see anybody hurt out there,
that's for sure. I'm glad he was back playing."
The Red Wings failed to score on that lengthy man advantage, and
had 13 minutes of power-play time on five advantages in the second
period but didn't score. They were 1-for-9 overall.
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, giving him a combined
90 in the regular season and playoffs.
Johan Franzen opened the scoring 11:09 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 him by scoring on a rebound just 17 seconds
later.
Valtteri Filppula, who earlier had an assist, capped the scoring
midway through the third period.
Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg each had two assists for
the Red Wings.
The loss was the most lopsided in the Ducks' playoff
history.
"They were obviously the better team tonight; simple as
that," coach Randy Carlyle said. "They started with the
puck more often than we did. They played their system a lot better.
They've got a puck possession team and they controlled the
puck. There were far too many passes through the neutral ice into
the middle of ice.
"They came through there uncontested. That's not the
style of hockey that we're capable of playing. I'll talk to
the team. We'll be judged by our effort on the next one. We
can't do anything about this one."
The Ducks have lost only one other playoff game by a margin of
more than three goals _ on April 23, 1999, when the Red Wings beat
them 5-1 at Anaheim in Game 2 of the conference quarterfinals on
the way to sweeping the series.
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.
Bryzgalov faced 15 shots.
Notes:@ Detroit RW Tomas Kopecky played in his first career
postseason game and got called for the first two penalties of the
contest. Anaheim received eight consecutive penalties after that,
including the major on Niedermayer. The Red Wings didn't get
another penalty until Andreas Lilja was sent off for slashing with
8:40 remaining. ... Anaheim LW Chris Kunitz underwent surgery
Tuesday for a broken bone in his right hand and is expected to miss
the rest of the postseason.
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