Red Wings 6, Sharks 0

DETROIT -- Ty Conklin made 24 saves for his sixth NHL shutout and Pavel Datsyuk had two goals and two assists to lift the Red Wings to a 6-0 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

San Jose has the NHL's best record (25-4-3), but the Sharks lost for the second straight night. They fell at Columbus 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday. The defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings have the second-best record in the Western Conference (21-6-4).

WINGS CORNER

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Marian Hossa had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings and Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Brad Stuart also scored. Brett Lebda added two assists in Conklin's second shutout of the season.

Evgeni Nabokov stopped 22 shots for San Jose.

Detroit scored on successive shots in a span of 1:27 late in the first period to take a

Red Wings vs. Sharks 12/18/08

2-0 lead after San Jose had carried most of the play to that point.

Franzen opened the scoring with 5:29 left in the first with his 14th goal. He beat Nabokov over his glove with a wrist shot from the high slot on the rush. Datsyuk also scored from the high slot, putting a wrist shot between Nabokov's pads with 4:02 left.

Hossa made it 3-0 at 9:18 of the second period when he snapped a one-timer off Nabokov's blocker and into the top of the net from the high slot. It was Hossa's 17th goal.

Filppula got his fifth goal, 7:25 into the second period, when he tapped a cross-crease pass into the empty net.

Datsyuk's second of the game and 10th of the season came with 7:31 left.

Stuart scored his first of the season with 3:31 remaining.

GAME NOTES: Sharks head coach Todd McLellan was an assistant with Detroit the previous three seasons. ... Detroit G Chris Osgood didn't play because of a sore groin. ... San Jose RW Jonathan returned after missing eight games with an upper body injury. ... Sharks C Joe Pavelski came back after sitting out two games due to a lower body injury. ... The Red Wings are in talks with the NHL about the possibility of opening next season in Stockholm, Sweden, with a game against the St. Louis Blues. Detroit has seven players from Sweden. ... The Sharks are on pace to challenge Detroit's NHL record of 62 wins in a season in 1995-96 and the Montreal Canadiens' mark of 132 points in 1976-77. ... San Jose defeated Detroit 4-2 in San Jose on Oct. 30.