Red Wings dominate Stars for 60 minutes

Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas, right, hooks the arm of Detroit Red Wings' Henrik Zetterberg (40), of Sweden, during the second period Thursday night in Detroit.

DETROIT The Detroit Red Wings were in full flight Thursday night.

Marian Hossa, Dan Cleary, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg each had a goal and an assist in Stanley Cup champion Detroit s 6-1 victory over the Dallas Stars.

Kirk Maltby and Tomas Holmstrom also scored in Detroit s fifth straight victory, Niklas Kronwall added three assists, and Chris Osgood made 22 saves.

I thought we had a great start tonight and the special teams were good, Cleary said. We had a good, solid 60-minute game for once. All four lines did a good job cycling in the zone.

Both Cleary and Kronwall reached the 20-point plateau to give the Red Wings 11 players with at least 20 points.

I think that just shows how balanced this team is. Not many teams is like ours, Hossa said. We know we ve got lots of guys who can score. If we play well defensively, everybody, we re going to get goals. It s big for our hockey team.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said he thought the Winter Classic game on New Year s Day against the Chicago Blackhawks and the game before that, also against the Blackhawks in Detroit, got his team excited and motivated in their current run.

The emotional engagement has been much greater, he said.

Loui Eriksson had Dallas lone goal, and Marty Turco stopped 14 shots before being replaced by Tobias Stephan after two periods.

They re the top team in the league and they pretty much embarrassed up for 60 minutes, said the Stars Steve Ott.

Turco has a 3-11-5 career record against the Red Wings and is 0-8-2 at Joe Louis Arena.

I know he went to school here (Michigan), he s from the Sault (St. Marie) in Canada, which is obviously a border city, Maltby said. I don t know. I don t want to presume anything but we just try and go out and for some reason, he hasn t had a lot of success here, which is obviously good for us.

Hossa opened the scoring 4:07 into the game when his harmless-looking wrist shot from along the right wing boards at the top of the right circle bounced in off of Turco for Hossa s 19th goal.

Cleary made it 2-0 with 8:32 left in the first period with his seventh goal. He put in the rebound of Kronwall s shot from the point.

Maltby scored his third goal, with 7:33 left in the second period, on a rebound of Tomas Kopecky s shot. Holmstrom got a power-play goal with 2:56 remaining in the middle period when he blasted a shot through Turco from the right circle. It was Holmstrom s 12th goal.

I can t let pucks go through me (for us) to have a chance, Turco said.

Eriksson put Dallas on the board 38 seconds into the third period. He tipped in Trevor Daley s shot for his 21st goal. It ended a 179:24 Detroit home shutout streak. The Red Wings had last surrendered a goal at Joe Louis Arena on Dec. 23, 1:14 into the third period.

Datsyuk got his 18th goal, on the power play, 5:07 into the third.

Zetterberg added his 16th with 8:58 left.