CHICAGO — Marian Hossa’s short-handed goal got the short-handed Red Wings started Sunday.
And once they got rolling, the defending champions overpowered the frustrated Blackhawks and moved within one win of a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
With injured stars Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk sidelined, Hossa and Henrik Zetterberg had two goals each, sending the Red Wings to a convincing 6-1 victory and a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
“We heard this morning during the pregame meal he (Lidstrom) was not playing. We just had to deal with it,” Zetterberg said.
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Detroit, where the Red Wings opened this series with two wins.
Detroit took advantage of backup goalie Cristobal Huet, who made his first start of these playoffs in place of injured Nikolai Khabibulin. He gave up four goals and was pulled in the second.
Rookie Corey Crawford took over for the last 15:55 of the period, but Huet returned in the third and allowed Zetterberg’s second power-play goal that made it 6-1.
Hossa’s short-handed goal on a 2-on-1 break gave the Red Wings the early lead, and they added three power-play goals as Chicago wore out the door to the penalty box.
“We tried to keep our poise. We knew they were coming,” Zetterberg said of the Blackhawks, who had been upset after Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall flattened forward Martin Havlat with a hard hit Friday.
“They didn’t basically have anything else to do once the game kind of ran away,” Zetterberg added.
Chicago coach Joel Quenne-ville was fuming over a call against Blackhawks defenseman Matt Walker for roughing during a scrum as the first period ended.
Leading 2-0, the Red Wings went on a power play to start the second, and Valtteri Filppula scored just 1:13 in for a three-goal Detroit lead.
“I think we witnessed probably the worst call in the history of sports there,” Quenneville said. “You know, they scored, it’s 3-0. They ruined a good hockey game and destroyed what was going on on the ice.”
Six-time Norris Trophy winner Lidstrom was scratched because of a lower body injury. Coach Mike Babcock said he heard about the injury — he said it was not serious — in a cab as he was coming to the game. Datsyuk missed his second straight game because of a sore foot.
Johan Franzen also scored for the Red Wings, a momentum-swinging goal from far out on the right side with 20.7 seconds left in the first period that made it 2-0.
