DETROIT -- The opening game of the NHL's Western Conference final was no contest.
The Detroit Red Wings continued to roll, winning their seventh straight game, in ripping the Dallas Stars 4-1 Thursday night.
Detroit centre Valtteri Filppula (right) celebrates after scoring in the second period on Dallas goalie Marty Turco. The goal gave the Wings a 4-0 lead.
As if they didn't already have enough offensive weapons, the Wings turned what had been an ordinary power play thus far in the post-season into a three-goal flame thrower.
Power-play goals by Brian Rafalski and Johan Franzen put Detroit up 2-0 in the first period, and a power-play goal by Tomas Holmstrom plus an even-strength goal by Valtteri Filpulla made it 4-0 before Brenden Morrow replied late in the second period.
The Red Wings hadn't played in a week but showed no signs of rust in the teams' first post-season meeting in 10 years.
Detroit outshot Dallas 31-21. Chris Osgood remained superb in the nets since replacing Dominik Hasek in the first round and improved to 7-0. Marty Turco, winless in 10 career regular-season starts in Joe Louis Arena, was a loser again.
On power plays, Detroit was 3-for-6 and Dallas was 0-for-4 in front of a near-capacity crowd of 20,066.
Game 2 is Saturday in Detroit (CBC, 6 p.m.).
Six penalties were assessed in the first period. Dallas took four of them, and Detroit jumped to a 2-0 lead.
The Red Wings had a two-man advantage when Rafalski slapped a long shot that sailed over a kneeling and screened Turco at 4:28. Mattias Norstrom was serving a hooking penalty and Mark Fistric joined him in the penalty box for roughing up Holmstrom after a whistle.
Franzen deflected down a high Niklas Kronvall shot and sent the puck skittering past Turco's feet at 15:34 after Toby Petersen had been nabbed for holding.
Franzen's 12th goal of the post-season, in his team's 11th game, tied the club playoff record of five consecutive games with a goal. The six-foot-three Swede shares it with Gordie Howe, who went five in a row in 1949 and 1964, and with Ted Lindsay, who had a similar streak in 1952.
Shots were 4-4 early on but the Red Wings were up 12-4 after 20 minutes.
Osgood made a fantastic leg save when Niklas Hagman got free for a shot from on Osgood's doorstep six minutes into the second period.
"Ozzie, Ozzie," cheered the crowd.
Holmstrom made it 3-0 when, parked in front of Turco, he deflected in a high Nicklas Lidstrom shot at 6:40. Mike Ribeiro cringed in the penalty box, where he'd been exiled for hooking.
The scoring sequence began when Henrik Zetterberg beat Steve Ott on a faceoff in the Dallas end.
The crowd got on Turco by chanting his name over and over. The red-clad throng, shaking white pompons, then let out a roar when Kronvall slammed Antti Miettinen to the ice with a punishing and clean body check.
Vilpulla finished off a fabulous demonstration of passing at 15:37 of the second period. Kronvall fed Mikael Samuelsson who relayed the puck to Filpulla, who scooted between Fistric and Norstrom for a clear shot at the net. Turco didn't have a chance on the leftie's quick wrist shot.
Morrow flicked a rebound past Osgood at 18:53.
There were only two penalties in the second period. Each team took one. Detroit was up 25-15 on the shots counter after 40 minutes.
Detroit coach Mike Babcock gave his muckers more ice time in the third period and veterans such as Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, appearing in his first playoff game this spring after recovering from a hamstring injury, frustrated the Stars with their checking.
Zetterberg took a penalty in the third period, and the Stars took two penalties in the last minute.
The Dallas power play, clicking once in every four attempts before this game, couldn't connect at all on this night.
History shows that teams winning the first game of a best-of-seven go on to win the series 68.9 per cent of the time.
Notes: Detroit D Chris Chelios returned to the lineup after missing the fourth and final game of the previous series with what his team described as a lower body injury... The last time these teams met in the playoffs, in 1998, the Red Wings prevailed in a six-game conference final that catapulted them to a second straight championship. No team has won two in a row since .
-- The Canadian Press
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