Wings pepper Rangers for 6-1 victory

DETROIT – The Red Wings scored two goals in each period on Tuesday, helping the home team cruise to a 6-1 victory over the New York Rangers at Joe Louis Arena.

Center Henrik Zetterberg scored twice for the Red Wings, who improved to 4-2-0 in the preseason. Zetterberg has scored four goals in the preseason. He also added assist on Pavel Datsyuk’s power-play goal in the second period that gave the Red Wings a 4-0 lead.

Johan Franzen gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead just 28-seconds into the game, beating Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who made 12 stops on 19 shots.

Dominik Hasek made 18 stops for Detroit.

Defenseman Chris Chelios and center Tomas Kopecky also scored for the Wings.

The Wings built a 6-0 lead before the Rangers scored. Center Scott Gomez scored his first of the preseason for New York – a power-play tally -- with less than two-minutes left in regulation.

Defensively, the Red Wings were solid, limiting the Rangers to 19 shots and holding their opponent to 1-of-7 on the power play.

Newly acquired defenseman and Detroit native Brian Rafalski made his Red Wings’ debut, collecting an assist on Franzen’s first-period goal. Rafalski missed Detroit’s first five games with a hip flexor injury suffered in practice on September 19 in Grand Rapids.