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CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Dominik Hasek had to be stingy while the Detroit Red Wings were struggling offensively. They're not struggling anymore, but "The Dominator" has remained stingy. Hasek stopped 23 shots for his second straight shutout and Brendan Shanahan and Luc Robitaille each had a goal and an assist as the Red Wings snapped the Chicago Blackhawks' three-game winning streak with a 5-0 rout. Detroit went seven straight games without scoring more than two goals, a slump that included a 2-0 home loss to Chicago on Monday. But the Red Wings broke out two nights later with a 4-1 triumph over Vancouver, and Hasek has carried them the last two games. "I feel in the groove," he said. "It's nice to get a shutout before Christmas. It'll make the next two days with the family a little more relaxing. But the guys played well defensively and I made a couple of good saves." Hasek flopped and fully extended his left pad to deny Steve Sullivan on a shorthanded breakaway early in the second period and Robitaille got the back-breaking power-play goal moments later to give Detroit a 3-0 cushion. "He read me well," Sullivan said. "I came down on an angle and went to my backhand. But he's one of the bigger goaltenders and he just kept the pad there. I tried to stuff it under him, but he made a great save." Brett Hull and Igor Larionov also scored in the middle period for the Red Wings, who ended a three-game winless streak against the Blackhawks. "(Hasek's) played well all year, but what's important is that we've held the shots down lately. And that's what's been happening," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. Joceyln Thibault surrendered four goals on 16 shots before he was replaced by Steve Passmore midway through the second period. "They scored three goals on 11 shots," Blackhawks coach Brian Sutter said. "No, (Thibault) wasn't tired. He just had four nights off." "There's not a lot I can do about this game. I wish it went better, but it just didn't happen," Thibault added. "Some nights the puck just hits you and some nights it doesn't. And tonight, it didn't." Chicago got more bad news when right wing Steve Thomas caught his skate in a rut in the second period and broke his left ankle. He fractured the same ankle in a different spot and was playing his first game since November 15. Thomas will undergo surgery Monday and is not expected back until mid-February. Shanahan scored the only goal Hasek needed 13:32 into the opening period, beating Thibault with a one-timer from the top of the right faceoff circle. Former Blackhawks defenseman Chris Chelios made it 2-0 with 19 seconds to go in the period, firing a slap shot from nearly an identical spot through traffic for his third goal of the season and second in three games. "I think we were fine the first 10 minutes and then they scored on their first opportunity. Then they got their second one on their second chance," Sutter said. "When we had chances, for some reason we didn't shoot the puck. They did to us tonight what we did to them in their building the other day." Robitaille and Larionov sandwiched power-play goals around Hull's third in as many games as the Red Wings' lead grew to 5-0. Detroit was 2-for-4 with the man advantage after going 0-for-23 in the previous six games. "We've changed a lot of things on our power play the last two weeks because we've been in a bit of a scoring drought," Chelios said. "Tonight we got two, and you would think with the guys we have it would only be a matter of time." |
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