Wild knocked off its skates

Jerry S. Mendoza, Associated Press

Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek seals off the goal entrance with a little help from teammates Niklas Kronwall (55) and Andreas Lilja (3) during the second period of their NHL game against Minnesota.

Detroit schooled Minnesota in every way possible, and Dominik Hasek coasted to an easy shutout.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: December 8, 2007 - 8:00 PM

DETROIT -- St. Paul might have taken the "Hockeytown" label from Detroit as evidence by yet another press release from the Wild on Friday, but the Red Wings proved they're the superior hockey team.

The latest contest, a breeze of a 5-0 victory by the NHL juggernauts, followed the same script as nearly every Wild visit to Motown.

The Wild, 1-6-1 in its past eight games at Joe Louis Arena, never has the puck, which means the Wild never enters the offensive zone and never generates a bona fide scoring chance.

"Just too strong for us," coach Jacques Lemaire said. "Our top players were not even close to them, not even close. We couldn't make a damn pass. It's like they were playing against kids."

The Joe erupted into a party when Henrik Zetterberg finished off his second career hat trick in the third period.

The Wild, on a five-game trip, suffered its worst shutout loss since Nov. 27, 2003 (Dallas, 5-0).

"Detroit carried the play the whole time. They had the puck pretty much the whole game," Brian Rolston said. "It looked like we were scared to make plays, like we were scared of their firepower or something."

Because the Wild plays tonight in Columbus, where it's won once in its history, Lemaire didn't want to dust off Niklas Backstrom. Instead, Josh Harding (29 saves), who has won once since Oct. 20, endured the long haul behind teammates that were picked apart like an artichoke.

"It was a tough night," Harding said.

It's hard to imagine that Dominik Hasek, ancient at age 42 and having entered with the NHL's worst save percentage (.869), has had a simpler shutout than his 77th. Hasek, 8-0-2 against the Wild with three shutouts and a 0.98 goals- against average, made 19 saves (10 through 40 minutes).

At one point, the Wild was being outshot 21-6.

"We dominated the whole game," Hasek said. "I only had to make a few saves."

With the last line change at home, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock matched the Zetterberg-Pavel Datsyuk-Tomas Holmstrom line against Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra all night.

Lemaire tried to use Stephane Veilleux, Branko Radivojevic and Mark Parrish on their left wing, but nothing worked. Gaborik, Demitra, Brent Burns and Kim Johnsson were minus-3's.

"Top guys against top guys. That's what it did," Lemaire said.

"We didn't play well at all," Gaborik said of he and Demitra.

Zetterberg, who has at least a point in 25 of 28 games and 12 multi-point games this season, led the attack to become the NHL's third 20-goal scorer (21 to be exact).

"When we're trailing, we've got to learn to relax and make plays," center Eric Belanger said. "We were so worried about Datsyuk and Zetterberg and [Nicklas] Lidstrom that we didn't play. We were on our heels and they put on a show.

"You can't play those guys like that. You've got to play them tight. You've got to skate with them. You stand still all over the ice, they'll make you look bad."