ANAHEIM, Calif. - 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.
