Red Wings Down Blues on Brett Hull Night

On the night that the St. Louis Blues retired the number of former captain Brett Hull, the Detroit Red Wings spoiled the show, jumping out to an early lead and picking up a 5-1 victory in the first game of a home-and-home series.

After a long ceremony to honor the former Blue and Red Wing, the teams took to the ice with Detroit clearly dominating.

Just 2:34 in, Henrik Zetterberg scored a power play goal to put the Red Wings on the board. Taking a cross-crease pass from Pavel Datsyuk, he lifted a shot into the far side of the net before goaltender Manny Legace could get to it.

Less than two minutes later, Datsyuk got a goal of his own, putting a wrist shot from the left circle off of defenseman Bryce Salvador and into the St. Louis net at 4:22.

With 6:18 remaining in the period, the Red Wings added another when Dan Cleary threaded a shot between Legace and the post. The goal chased Legace from the crease and brought Jason Bacashihua into the game.

The Blues never recovered from Detroit’s quick start and the Red Wings continued rolling, adding a goal by Valtteri Filppula in the second period and one by Robert Lang in the third.

Eric Brewer scored with 3:24 remaining in the third to break Detroit netminder Dominik Hasek’s shutout.

Hasek stopped 24 of 25 shots against while Legace made only nine saves on 12 shots and Bacashihua went 18-for-20.

The Red Wings’ first goal was the game’s lone power play goal. Detroit had four chances with the extra attacker and St. Louis had eight.

The two teams will meet again on Thursday night when the Red Wings host the second game of the home-and-home series.