National Hockey League
Red Wings win ninth straight at home
National Hockey League

Red Wings win ninth straight at home

Published Dec. 10, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

The Detroit Red Wings pushed aside the tired Winnipeg Jets.

Jiri Hudler scored twice and Detroit beat Winnipeg 7-1 on Saturday night for their ninth straight home victory.

The Red Wings trailed 1-0 after only 35 seconds. But Winnipeg played at home Friday night and didn't get into Detroit until 4 a.m.

''It was a tough turnaround for them,'' Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. ''We knew if we could play with some energy that we'd eventually wear them out and in the end, we got lots of opportunity.''

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Valtteri Filppula, Todd Bertuzzi and Henrik Zetterberg each had a goal and an assist, and Chris Conner, Drew Miller also scored for the Red Wings. Johan Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk each had two assists, and Jimmy Howard made 29 saves.

''They were quick there on that first shift. They go behind us and caught us off guard,'' Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said.'' Once we got the tempo up we were able to get some goals on them. You could tell they were playing the second game of a back-to-back.''

Bryan Little got that goal, 35 seconds into the game for Winnipeg, which had its four-game winning streak snapped. Ondrej Pavelec stopped 19 shots before being replaced early in the third period by Chris Mason.

''A good start to the game for sure,'' Little said. '' . I think it was all downhill from there.''

He gave the Jets a 1-0 lead when he beat Howard through the legs with a backhand shot off a partial breakaway. It was Little's 10th goal.

Bertuzzi tied it at the 6:47 mark with his third goal. He put in a one-timer from Pavelec's left.

''We kept staying on them and did the right things,'' Bertuzzi said.

Zetterberg gave Detroit the lead with 5:04 left in the opening period. His sixth goal came on a slap shot from the top of the left circle.

The Red Wings then scored four times in the second period to break the game open. Hudler got his first goal of the game at 4:03, beating Pavelec from the left circle.

''They made it 3-1, and I think the wind kind of came out of our sails,'' Winnipeg coach Claude Noel said.

Conner's first goal of the season came 40 seconds later. His shot from the right circle deflected off Winnipeg's Mark Flood and Randy Jones and into the net.

It also was the first goal as a Red Wing for Conner, who is from the Detroit suburb of Livonia. Filppula's got his 10th goal, at 9:31, and Miller's third goal capped off the scoring in the period with 7:19 left. Hudler added his second goal of the game and sixth of the season 1:12 into the third period.

Notes: Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall took a puck to the face off the stick of Andrew Ladd in the middle of the second period. Kronwall had a bloody mouth and he went to the locker room. He was back on the bench before the end of the period after getting six stitches, three on the bridge of his nose and three in the mouth area. ... The seven goals are a season high for Detroit, which last scored seven goals last season on Feb. 28. The Red Wings chased the opposing starting goalie for the second straight game.

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