Wings Ground Hawks for 3-1 Lead

photo: Tom Cruze, Chicao Sun-Times

(2) RED WINGS 6 – (4) BLACKHAWKS 1

DET leads series, 3-1

The Detroit Red Wings are firmly back in control of the Western Conference finals after this blowout of the Blackhawks in the United Center on NBC Sunday afternoon. Without Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa and Henrik Zetterberg put the defending champions one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Motown, where the Red Wings won twice to begin this series. And the way the young Blackhawks handled themselves in Game 4, the chances of another game in Chicago seem bleak.

Chicago took 16 penalties, including three misconducts, for a grand total of 56 penalty minutes. Their early angst was a misguided pursuit of revenge for Niklas Kronwall’s (clean) hit on Martin Havlat Friday night. Once they were behind, the Blackhawks continued their minor goonery and prevented any comeback.

“We tried to keep our poise. We knew they were coming,” Zetterberg said of the inexperienced Hawks. Keeping their pose meant scoring three power play goals to blow this game open.

The scoring started, though, during a Chicago man-advantage midway through the opening period. That’s when Marian Hossa scored to kickstart the depleted Wings.

After Johan Franzen scored late in the first period for a 2-0 lead, Hossa set up Valtteri Filppula for a power play goal and then scored at even strength (with a Jonathan Toews PP goal in between) to put Detroit ahead, 4-1, in the first 4:05 of the second.

Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville pulled Cristobal Huet, playing for an injured Nikolai Khabibulin, at that point and replaced him with rookie Corey Crawford. He allowed Zetterberg’s power play tally at 7:42 of the second. Huet returned for the third and allowed the final Wing goal of the day, another power play goal from Zetterberg.

Hossa ended up with two goals, an assist, and a +2 rating. It was his seventh career multi-goal effort in the postseason.

“I thought [Hossa] was awesome today,” said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock. “He played big, was physical, took the puck to the net.”

Only 21 of 231 (9.1%) teams to fall behind three-games-to-one have recovered to win the series. The Blackhawk franchise is not represented in that 21.

“We’ve got more in the tank,” warned Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook. “We’ve got to have a better performance from all 20 guys. That’s the bottom line.”

Odds & Ends…Lidstom and Khabibulin did not play because of lower-body injuries. Datsyuk missed his second straight game because of a sore foot…This was Detroit’s third game of at least six goals this postseason. All three have come on the road.