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Samuelsson, Zetterberg guide Red Wings past Maple Leafs

Dec 10, 2006 - 3:05 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- With the Detroit Red Wings near the bottom of the NHL's power-play rankings, Mikael Samuelsson and fellow Swede Henrik Zetterberg decided to do something about it.

Samuelsson and Zetterberg each scored a pair of power-play goals as the Red Wings cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Pavel Datsyuk collected three assists and defenseman Mathieu Schneider set up three tallies for Detroit, which has won three straight games and five of its last six.

"We've had a pretty good week going for us and we wanted to keep it going," Red Wings center Kris Draper said.

Ranked 26th on the power play with just a 12.5 percent conversion rate, the Red Wings had plenty of success against the Maple Leafs, going 5-for-14 with the man advantage.

"Our power play has been better lately, but we haven't scored many goals until tonight," Zetterberg said. "It's good to score this many in one game. This gives us a little confidence."

"Toronto just self-destructed," said Detroit's Daniel Cleary, who scored his team's other power-play goal. "Games like this are what we envisioned at the start of the season. We have a couple of good five-man (power-play) units. We've always had the belief that we'd turn things around. Maybe now we have."

Samuelsson tallied midway through the first period before Zetterberg doubled Detroit's lead with less than three minutes left in the session.

Zetterberg's tally came on what likely was the hardest shot of the game. After taking a pass from Tomas Holmstrom 15 feet in front of the net, Zetterberg took one step in and fired the puck past the left pad of goaltender Andrew Raycroft.

Samuelsson scored again with 9:18 remaining in the second to give the Red Wings a comfortable 3-0 bulge. After defenseman Bryan McCabe got Toronto on the board at 12:04, Zetterberg converted with two seconds to go, when he knocked in a rebound past Raycroft to restore Detroit's three-goal cushion.

Cleary capped the special-teams extravaganza for the Red Wings 75 seconds in the third period, sending the Maple Leafs to their seventh straight loss.

"We competed hard," Toronto's Chad Kilger said. "It was their power play that beat us."

"Getting a win is not going to just happen for us," Maple Leafs center Michael Peca said. "We want to get out of this rut. In the long run, it's going to be a 60-minute effort that gets the job done."

Dominik Hasek, who has won five straight starts, made 21 saves for Detroit.

"It was just a good all-around game for us," Draper said. "Dom made some big saves early, the penalty kill was good and the power play got goals."

Raycroft allowed four goals on 26 shots for Toronto before being replaced by Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who made eight saves in the third period.

"We came out of the gates strongly, and then we spent the rest of the night in the penalty box," Maple Leafs coach Paul Maurice said. "You can't beat that team playing that way. I thought there were signs of getting better. I like that there was some fight in us. There was some competitiveness, but not consistent competitiveness."