Red Wings beat Blackhawks 4 - 1

The Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks battled Saturday in Game 2 of their Western Conference Semifinals series.

The Red Wings were victorious over the Chicago Blackhawks. The final score was Red Wings 4, Blackhawks 1.

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Blog: Game Highlights

Defenseman Brendan Smith scored to snap a tie late in the second period as visiting Detroit ended an eight-game winless skid to top-seeded Chicago and evened its Western Conference second-round series at one game apiece.

Johan Franzen netted his team-leading fourth goal and Valtteri Filppula also tallied in the third period to seal the victory. Damien Brunner scored for the second straight contest and Jimmy Howard turned aside 19 shots for the seventh-seeded Red Wings, who host Game 3 on Monday.

Patrick Kane snapped a 14-game postseason goalless drought and Patrick Sharp added an assist to extend his playoff point streak to six games. Corey Crawford finished with 26 saves for the Blackhawks.

With the game tied at 1-1, Henrik Zetterberg skated past diving defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson to reel in a loose puck along the left-wing boards. The captain skated along the goal line before wristing a centering feed to Smith, who made no mistake into the open net with 3:52 remaining in the second period.

Franzen provided insurance 7:19 into the third period after accepting a stretch pass from defenseman Jonathan Ericsson before snapping a shot over Crawford's glove.

Filppula capped the scoring nearly five minutes later after unleashing a backhander as he fell to the ice that sailed between the pads of Crawford.