Three goals in first six minutes lead Wings to win

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings took care of things early on Saturday.

Detroit scored three times in the first six minutes and Brian Rafalski, Marian Hossa and Pavel Datsyuk each had a goal and an assist to lift the Red Wings to an 8-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

Brett Lebda, Dan Cleary, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mikael Samuelsson and Ville Leino also scored for the Red Wings. Niklas Kronwall had three assists and Jiri Hudler assisted on two goals. Ty Conklin made 23 saves.

"We wanted to emphasize the start," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "[Edmonton] is in the eighth [playoff] spot. That means it's a playoff game for them."

Zack Stortini and Marc Pouliot each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, and Dustin Penner also scored. Dwayne Roloson stopped 11 shots before being pulled after the first period.

"They jumped all over us," Stortini said.

Detroit led 5-0 after the first period.

The Red Wings scored three times in the first 5:44 as Rafalski scored his eighth goal, on the power play, at 1:47 on a slap shot from the top of the right circle. Lebda made it 2-0 at 3:18 when he converted Kris Draper's pass. Cleary's ninth goal increased the lead to 3-0, 2:26 later when he tipped in Kronwall's shot. Hossa got a power-play goal with 6:59 left in the opening period as he deflected in another shot by Kronwall for his 29th goal. It was Hossa's fifth goal in three games.

"They picked us apart with point shots and deflections," Oilers' coach Craig MacTavish said.

Datsyuk completed the scoring for the period with his 20th goal, with 1:58 left, when he chipped in Henrik Zetterberg's pass.

"I thought that was our best period of the year," Cleary said. "All four lines were effective. We outshot them [16-5], the power play was good. Sometimes early we're on our heels, but we were pressuring them the whole period."

Roloson was replaced by Jeff Deslauriers to start the second period.

Lidstrom scored with 7 seconds left in the middle period for his ninth goal.

Stortini foiled Conklin's shutout bid 3:54 into the third period with his second goal. Penner picked up his 12th goal at 7:01. Pouliot scored with 8:19 left for his seventh goal.

"We weren't quite as tight in the third [defensively]," said Conklin. "It was 6-0 going into the third and they didn't want it to get any worse than that."

Samuelsson picked up his 14th goal and Leino his second in the final five minutes.

Game notes
Detroit RW Tomas Holmstrom will undergo hernia surgery on Wednesday in Philadelphia. General manager Ken Holland said Holmstrom will miss up to five weeks. He had 14 goals and 30 points in 40 games before missing the past three contests. ... Edmonton was without C Shawn Horcoff (lower body). ... Kronwall got his 100th career point when he assisted on Cleary's goal. ... Red Wings RW Johan Franzen left the game in the first period with a hand injury. Babcock said X-rays were negative, but the team is sending Franzen to have a CAT scan. ... Five goals in a period is Detroit's season high. The last time the Red Wings led 5-0 after the first period was April 8, 1993, at Tampa Bay. ... Detroit C Tomas Kopecky missed the game with a slight hip pointer.