Blackhawks Beat Red Wings 4-1 in Series Opener Two role players each came up with a big goal. The stars had a handful of key plays. The goalie made all the stops. Even gruff coach Joel Quenneville had to like this one. Johnny Oduya and Marcus Kruger scored in the third period, Corey Crawford made 20 saves and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 in the opener of their second-round playoff series Wednesday night. "Much better from our prior series," Quenneville said. I thought what we're talking about in our team game was in place. Had some pace, had some speed, zone time, and I thought everybody contributed. In the wake of Chicago's five-game victory over Minnesota in the first round, Quenneville talked about a higher level of intensity, and each of his biggest stars echoed his comments. The response was a dominant final two periods in the Blackhawks' first game in the Western Conference semifinals since they won the Stanley Cup in 2010. Marian Hossa had the opening goal in the first, and Patrick Sharp finished with an empty-netter and two assists to give him nine points in the postseason. "I thought it was our best game of the playoffs, no question," Sharp said. Jimmy Howard had 38 stops in a terrific performance, but Detroit still lost to rival Chicago for the eighth straight time dating to last season. "I think in the first it was pretty even, but then I think in the second and third they looked like they had a little more energy than we did," Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. It's going to be nice to have a day off tomorrow and practice and then looking forward to Game 2. The series resumes on Saturday afternoon at the United Center. The 75th all-time playoff game between the Blackhawks and Red Wings was tied at 1 after two periods, and Howard made a great stop on a breakaway by Dave Bolland 4½ minutes into the third. Chicago kept working and went in front to stay on a heady play by Oduya. He drifted in from the point and sent Sharp's pass past Howard on the glove side with 12 minutes left. "He sneaks in there, and it was a great play by Johnny," Sharp said. I saw him pinching in, I felt like he was wide open, and he called for the puck. Kruger then jumped on a loose puck and sent a backhander into the upper right corner to make it 3-1. That was more than enough for Crawford, who caught a break when Damien Brunner's rebound attempt went off the crossbar and straight down before Brent Seabrook swept it away with about three minutes left. "Sometimes you got to get some breaks," Crawford said. Seabs came in there and he made a great play to clear it out. The opener of the 16th playoff series between the two Original Six teams was the first game for Chicago since it eliminated Minnesota last Thursday. Detroit closed out Anaheim with a 3-2 win in Game 7 on Sunday night, taking the final two games of the series against the second-seeded Ducks. Despite the long break, there was no sign of rust for the Blackhawks. The Red Wings skated right with Chicago at the start, but they couldn't keep up at the end of the game and coach Mike Babcock said they were looking forward to a day off. "We're not trying to take anything away from them," he said. They were better than us. The score tonight was more than fair as far as I'm concerned. They were better.