Kane, Toews silenced by Zetterberg line

DETROIT - Henrik Zetterberg is such a gifted offensive player that his superior defensive skills sometimes go unnoticed.

Zetterberg was the definition of a two-way player Sunday afternoon in the Red Wings' 5-2 victory over the Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.

In addition to his goal and assist, Zetterberg's line with Johan Franzen and Dan Cleary didn't give the Hawks' top line of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Troy Brouwer a sniff for 60 minutes.

Kane had no shots on goal, Toews 3 and Brouwer 1 in the loss at Joe Louis Arena.

"You have to give them credit, but obviously we know we have to be better," Toews said. "They work hard defensively, but no excuses. You can't let that frustrate you and you play through it. That's how you win four games in a series. You find ways to beat them."

Kane, coming off his first career hat trick in the Game 6 elimination of Vancouver in the second round, had little room to maneuver matched up against the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Franzen.

"When I had the puck they kind of collapsed on me, so I was trying to find the open guy a little more," Kane said. "They play a real good defensive game and their forwards were really good defensively.

"We just made too many turnovers in the second period, and they can take it to teams. We had stretches when we thought we played well, but overall it wasn't good enough."

The Hawks' most effective line was the fourth line of Adam Burish, Patrick Sharp and Ben Eager. The second line of Dave Bolland, Martin Havlat and Andrew Ladd had a tough night as well shaking free of Pavel Datsyuk's line. The Burish line really was the only one to get the puck deep, chase it down and make the Red Wings play a little defense.

"We were trying to make plays that weren't there and maybe holding on to the puck a little too long and not shooting it at the right times," Toews said. "When you expose the puck, they have great back pressure and forwards coming back.

"We made a lot of turnovers on the rush, and when you turn the puck over like that they're a possession team and they're not going to give it back. We have to work harder to keep the puck on our sticks."

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville didn't think the Toews line made Zetterberg, Franzen and Cleary play enough in their own zone.

"I think that line is one of the better lines in the league," Quenneville said. "I think offensively we've got to at least spend some time in their zone because you know you're going to be in your own end a little bit."

The Hawks knew this was going to be their toughest series yet.

"We know it's not going to be any easier," Toews said. "This is a better team than the last two teams we faced and we're going to have to work harder if we want to get scoring chances and create offense."