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DETROIT (Ticker) -- The three members of the "600 Club" got the Detroit Red Wings off to another quick start. Steve Yzerman and Brett Hull scored in the first period and Luc Robitaille tallied in the second as the Red Wings held on for a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues that gave them a two games to none lead in their Western Conference semifinal series. Detroit has dominated the opening period in the postseason, and Game Two was no exception. The Red Wings took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission as Yzerman pounced on a mistake by Blues goaltender Brent Johnson just 2:46 into the contest and Hull scored on a patented one-timer just under 16 minutes later. Detroit has outscored playoff opponents, 13-3, in the first period and has scored first in each of its six postseason wins. "It's tough to come back," St. Louis left wing Keith Tkachuk said. "Any team in the league is a better team with the lead. That's St. Louis Blues' hockey -- get the lead and tighten up defensively. It's tough to come back against the best goalie in the league." It got even thougher when Robitaille, the third member of the Red Wings with at least 600 goals, made it 3-0 on a deflection. "It always feels good to score, but what matters is whether we win," Robitaille said. "Some nights it's going to be Bret, some nights Shanny (Brendan Shanahan), some nights me. But as long as we win, that's all that matters. That's what we're all here for." Dominik Hasek stopped 24 shots over two periods as he bid for a second straight shutout to open the best-of-seven series. But Scott Mellanby converted a wraparound 47 seconds into the third to end Hasek's scoreless streak at 103 minutes, 45 seconds, then made things interesting by striking again with 41 seconds left. "It's nice to see us at least get a goal on the board," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "Maybe now we can generate some offense for the next game." Game Three is Tuesday in St. Louis. Detroit was able to hold on for its sixth straight victory. In their first-round triumph over Vancouver, the Red Wings lost the first two games at home before reeling off four wins. "(Hasek) was superb, I think," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. "He didn't have any chance on the goals, but in the first two periods, he made many, many good saves." And when Hasek could not stop the puck, he got help from teammates. In the first period, Chris Chelios covered for an out-of-position Hasek and got a piece of Pavol Demitra's rebound from the left side. Hasek came up big in the second and left Tkachuk talking to himself after scrambling to stop him from close range on a power-play rebound. "Hasek won't give you many opportunities," Tkachuk said. "You have to capitalize on the ones you do have." "We know we've had the chances, we just need to get a lead," Mellanby added. "We had enough chances in the first two games to come out of here with at least one win. We just have to find a way to bury those chances and get a lead on this team." That's a tough chore, considering the way the Red Wings have played in the first period. While St. Louis had nine of the game's first 10 shots, Detroit made good on its first. Johnson went behind the net but could not control a dump-in and was unable to scramble back before Yzerman got a feed from Sergei Fedorov and scored his 65th career postseason goal. "They got a lot of shots early and we didn't really generate a lot of offense. But when you get a goal, it kind of settles you down and gets you in the game a little bit more," Yzerman said. "We won the game, but they probably had more excellent scoring chances throughout the game." Hull doubled Detroit's lead on the power play with 92 seconds to go in the period, whipping the puck past Johnson from the bottom of the left circle off a feed from defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. A former Blue, Hull has five goals and three assists in the last three games. After going 0-for-6 in the first game, the Red Wings got another power-play goal 11:53 into the second period when defenseman Fredrik Olausson's one-timer from just inside the blue line got a piece of Robitaille on its way past Johnson. "We put the puck at the net a little more," Robitaille said of Detroit's power-play strategy. "When you do that, it opens up play around the net. We took a shot and that created the pass to Brett. The other goal was just a shot at the net. They've got great penalty-killers, so it's important for us to go to the net and try and get the rebounds." Mellanby finally got the Blues' first goal of the series in the opening minute of the third period. In the final minute, he broke down the right side, took a cross-ice pass from Tkachuk and ripped a shot under the crossbar for his fifth postseason tally. "You just try to shoot quick," Mellanby said. "That's the way it is nowadays. I just had to stand there and roof it. It's not that guys can't do it, but when there's an open net and you have that chance to bury it, you try to." St. Louis has dropped 11 of 12 best-of-seven series when losing the first two games. "The big picture looks tough, but we can't look at the big picture right now," Quenneville said. "We have to look at what can turn it around for Tuesday. We've put ourselves in a tough spot by falling behind in these games right off the bat." The Red Wings, however, know from experience that losing the first two games does not mean the series is over. "Being up two or down two, the next game is really a crucial one in determining which way the series goes, just like the Vancouver series, where we had to go in and absolutely play a must-win game," Yzerman said. "St. Louis will be taking that approach." |
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