Red Wings win fifth straight

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"It was a relief to get it over with. I pretty much played just to get through," Chelios said. "Getting a four-goal lead helped a lot early. It was a long game for me. I think the toughest thing will be going back to Chicago and playing against them. It went by slow. I'm glad it's over. It was too strange. I was too nervous to talk to anybody."

Clark, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Larry Murphy, Martin Lapointe and Brendan Shanahan scored for Detroit. Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov and Steve Yzerman each had two assists.

Ranford made 27 saves for his first win as a Red Wing and first since Jan. 21. He played a strong game despite letting in two goals in the third period.

"It was good," Ranford said. "I got a little tired late in the third period, but that's to be expected when you haven't played in a while. But I played good in the first and second, and that's when it mattered."

Detroit recorded its fifth straight victory, while extending its unbeaten streak against the rebuilding Blackhawks to eight games (7-0-1).

Detroit went 2-for-5 on its power play and led 3-0 after a rough first period in which 46 penalty minutes were called, including 27 against Chicago.

"Obviously, we took far too many penalties against a team like that, with the power play they have," Chicago coach Lorne Molleken said.