Red Wings take control

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 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 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and regain home-ice advantage.

Game 4 is tomorrow 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.

Niedermayer drew a five-minute major for boarding and was ejected.

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. .

The 42-year-old Hasek logged his second shutout of the playoffs and the 14th of his career. He had eight during this regular season to run his total to 76.

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 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.

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. " 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."