Early Goals Lead Red Wings over Devils

The Detroit Red Wings scored twice in the opening 1:42 Saturday night, cruising to a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils.

Just 28 seconds into the game, Tomas Holmstrom deflected a Nicklas Lidstrom past Devils netminder Martin Brodeur. The puck bounced off the post, off of Brodeur, and into the net.

Danny Cleary made it 2-0 1:14 later. Cleary raced through the neutral zone and took a cross-ice pass from Todd Bertuzzi, gaining the New Jersey end and snapping a shot past Brodeur’s glove from the left faceoff dot.

Henrik Zetterberg made it 3-0 with 8:23 left in the second period, driving to the net to knock his own rebound chance past Brodeur.

The Devils finally got on the board 39 seconds into the third period. Patrick Elias snapped a shot from the right faceoff circle through a screen by Dainius Zubrus and by Detroit goalie Chris Osgood.

Pavel Datsyuk wrapped up the game’s scoring with 9:48 left in the game. Henrik Zetterberg beat out an icing call and sent the puck to Datsyuk in the slot. Datsyuk moved to his backhand and beat Brodeur to make it 4-1.

After allowing goals on the first two shots he faced, Brodeur finished the night with 19 saves on 23 Detroit chances.

Osgood stopped 33 of 34 New Jersey shots en route to his 399th career win.

The Red Wings went scoreless on three power play tries. The Devils scored once on five tries with the extra attacker.

Detroit is back in action on Monday when they host the Los Angeles Kings.