Source: USA TODAY

CHICAGO – Henrik Zetterberg inherited his Detroit Red Wings captaincy from Nicklas Lidstrom, but Saturday, he led more like Steve Yzerman.

Zetterberg chipped in two assists and played a gritty, relentless overall game to lead the Red Wings to a 4-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks that ties up the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal 1-1.

“Maybe sometimes it doesn’t show as well, but he’s doing the hard work every night for us,” said Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson. “When he gets points, it’s good for us. But he is always doing the dirty work, too.”

Zetterberg drove the puck into the Chicago zone and then dropped a pass into the slot for defenseman Brendan Smith to drive home what turned out to be the game-winning goal at 16:08 of the second period.

Smith said he was simply in the right place at the right time. “It was a Damien Brunner kind of goal,” he said.

But Zetterberg had done the work on the goal, and had the vision to know where Smith was on the ice.

“(Zetterberg) is such a competitive player,” said Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, who was required to make only 19 saves in the game. “This time of year, he seems to step up his game.”

Right before the Smith goal, Zetterberg had shoved Chicago captain Jonathan Toews and then pushed into to the ice with his stick.

Game 4 is Monday in Detroit.

“We know that we weren’t good enough to win this game,” Toews said. “Mostly we made a few mistakes on the rush. Giving up pucks in the wrong areas. Last game we played smarter defensively.”

The Red Wings were badly outplayed for the final 40 minutes in Game 1, and the off day about how the Detroit top scorers needed to step up. Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula, who had one shot between them in Game 1, both scored in Game 2. Brunner had scored on a tip-in in the second period to tie the score 1-1.

Despite being shut out in Game 1, Zetterberg has three goals and six assists in his past five games.

“We just wanted to play a better game than we played in Game 1,” Zetterberg said. ‘They were a lot better than us then. They skated a lot more. We just wanted to prove to ourselves we could play a better game and we did.”

The Blackhawks had defeated the Red Wings in all four regular-season meetings, and had beaten them eight times in a row in a stretch dating to last season.

“We were better throughout the whole game compared to where we were last game,” said Ericsson, who assisted on Franzen’s third-period goal. “We were good for 20 (minutes) then. Today we played well for 60.”

Patrick Kane had scored, off an odd-man rush, at 14:05 of the first period to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

“I liked our start,” said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville. “I thought the first 10 minutes of the pace was probably as fast as at any point, but we didn’t sustain it. We didn’t do what we were hoping to do over the last 40 minutes.”

The Red Wings have had trouble scoring in the third period and were the least productive 5-on-5 team left in the playoffs. But all four of their goals came at even strength in Game 2, and two were scored in the third period, when they held Chicago to seven shots.

“They have four elite, elite forwards,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “They have lots of depth, but they have four all-world players and you can’t give them much room.”

Toews, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Kane combined for nine of Chicago’s 20 shots.

“I think today was our best 60-minute effort of the playoffs, even including round one,” Howard said. “I thought we did a great job of getting out of our zone efficiently.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

When U.S. coach Joe Sacco said the Americans “got what we deserved” in their game against Russians, he meant it in the most positive sense of the phrase.

Team USA stunned the defending world champion Russians 8-3 Thursday in Helsinki, Finland to give the Americans a strong chance to earn a rare medal at the World Championships.

“The entire 60 minutes we played a strong team game,” U.S. coach Joe Sacco told USA TODAY Sports from Helsinki.

The Americans (6-2), owners of only two medals in the past 50 years of this tournament, will play either Switzerland or the Czech Republic in the semifinals in Stockholm on Saturday.

Paul Stastny (Colorado Avalanche) paced the U.S. offense against the Russians with two goals and two assists, while linemate Craig Smith (Nashville Predators) set an American record with five assists. He was one assist short of the tournament record of six assists, set in 1973 by Czech player Jiri Holik against Poland.

Another American top performance came from Anaheim Ducks prospect goalie John Gibson, 19, who had 31 saves.

“The young kid is playing like he is in the prime of his career,” Smith said.

If USA wins its next game, it would be in the gold medal game. The Americans last were the world champions in 1960 when the winner of the Olympics was considered the world champion. But the Americans haven’t won a regular World Championships tournament since 1933.

If USA loses its next game, it would play in the bronze medal game on Saturday. Both of most recent medals won by the Americans were bronze, the last in 2004.

The Russians had defeated USA 5-3 in a preliminary round game. Thursday’s loss was the Russians’ worst at the tournament.

“We had a big save from Johnny early against (Alex) Ovechkin to keep the game knotted at zero and then we got a couple of goals to get a 2-0 lead,” Sacco said. “In hockey, whether you are in the NHL or over here, you have to be ready to start on time.”

Stastny has six goals and 13 points in the tournament. No American player over the past three decades has had that many points at the World Championships.

“He has been the catalyst,” Sacco said.

His line, which includes Smith and David Moss (Phoenix Coyotes), has been among the best in the tournament. Moss, who scored Thursday, has four goals in the tournament.

“Playing with these guys has been great,” Smith said. “I don’t think I’ve had a pass in my skates the entire tournament.”

Sacco said it was not an easy decision to start Gibson ahead of Ben Bishop (Tampa Bay Lightning), who had been getting most of the work.

“It was an extremely tough call,” Sacco said. “Bishop has played well in this tournament. But when I looked back at it, I thought Finland and Germany were both big games for us that we had to win and Gibson played extremely well in those games and showed a lot of poise.”

Gibson, who’s from the Pittsburgh area, has stopped 92 of 96 shots for a .958 save percentage. He was also the star when the Americans won the World Junior Championships last January.

“He’s very calm no matter how big the stakes are,” Stastny said. “He doesn’t get too high or too low, and you know he’s going to play a solid game.”

Stastny, T.J. Oshie (St. Louis Blues), Nate Thompson (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Alex Galchenyuk (Montreal Canadiens) to help the USA build a 4-1 second-period lead at the tournament in Helsinki, Finland.

After Galchenyuk’s goal, Russian starting goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov (Philadelphia Flyers) was replaced by Semyon Varlamov (Colorado).

The game was far from over. Ovechkin scored 1:33 into the third period to make it a 4-2 game.

Less than a minute later, U.S. forward Stephen Gionta (New Jersey Devils) drew a roughing penalty. However, it was the Americans who capitalized when Ryan Carter (New Jersey) scored a short-handed goal to make it 5-2.

“It was just like we had a sigh of relief after that goal, and then we just kept going,” Stastny said.

Undaunted, the Russians made it 5-3 when Alexander Perezhogin scored on the same power play.

But at 8;11 of the third period, Jacob Trouba (Winnipeg Jets) scored on the power play to regain the three-goal cushion.

Stastny and Moss added late goals to make it a rout.

“I just think we keep getting better and better as this tournament goes on,” Gibson said.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

PITTSBURGH – During the regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins were monstrous on the power play and feeble on the penalty kill.

Now in the postseason, they are thriving in both areas. Paul Martin and Chris Kunitz scored the Penguins’ eighth and ninth power-play goals of the playoffs and Pascal Dupuis had a short-handed goal to spark Pittsburgh to a 4-1 win against the Ottawa Senators in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.

“The difference in the game is obviously the execution on their power play and the fact we gave up a short-handed goal,” Ottawa coach Paul MacLean said.

In the postseason, the Penguins have converted nine of 25 chances with the man advantage for a league-leading 36% power-play efficiency.

“Obviously you can’t give them any opportunities,” MacLean said. “Our penalty killing has to be better.”

The Penguins thwarted all six of the Senators’ power-play opportunities, and that performance might be more remarkable. In the regular season, the Penguins ranked 25th out of 30 teams. In the postseason, the Penguins have killed 23 of 25 power-play chances for a 92% kill percentage.

“(Penalty killing) was one of our big focuses going into the playoffs,” Pittsburgh defenseman Douglas Murray said. “I have never looked at the stats, but I’m pretty sure whoever wins (the Cup) has a strong penalty kill.”

The short-handed goal by Dupuis was the Penguins’ first postseason short-handed goal in more than three years. Kunitz’s power-play goal, at 18:33 of the second period, had given Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead, and the Dupuis goal seemed to seal the deal.

“Our power play has been great, too,” Murray said. “The special-team battles decide a lot of series.”

The Penguins were the league’s highest-scoring regular-season team, and they have scored three or more goals in 13 of their last 14 playoff games, dating to last season.

SCHEDULE: Dates, times, TV

But the Penguins’ performance in Game 1 against Ottawa seemed sharper than the effort they had in the first round against the New York Islanders.

“I think we did a little better job of making the right play and managing the puck a little better,” said Martin, who gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 2:41 of the first period.

The Senators outshot Pittsburgh 36-30, but Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun didn’t appear to be under siege.

BOX SCORE: Penguins 4, Senators 1

He is 3-0 since replacing Marc-Andre Fleury as the Penguins starter. He has stopped 101 of 105 shots for a .962 save percentage.

“It’s so much fun for me to play in the playoffs, because it’s been a long time,” said Vokoun, who is getting his first playoff action since 2007.

MacLean said his team needed to play harder and quicker, and he expects the Senators to do that Friday.

“If we have any stage fright or youthful jitters, that should be behind us,” MacLean said.

PHOTOS: Top Images from NHL Second Round

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.