Columbus, OH (Betting Express) - Tomas Holmstrom scored twice and Brett Lebda had a goal and an assist as the Detroit Red Wings stormed past the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-1, in the opener of a home-and-home series at Nationwide Arena.

Pavel Datsyuk also scored, and Dominik Hasek finished with 31 saves for the Red Wings, who have won three of four and moved two points ahead of Anaheim atop the Western Conference with 108 points. Detroit also has a game in hand on both the Ducks and Nashville Predators.

The Red Wings are also looking for their third consecutive Presidents' Trophy and sixth straight division title. The squad is also battling to become the first club to finish atop the NHL's standings three straight seasons since the 1976-78 Montreal Canadiens achieved the feat.

"Everyone in the league knows that you have go to move the puck," said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock, of his team's outlook heading into the playoffs. "We have a lot of good talent. We think that we have a good team and a good chance."

Rick Nash had the lone tally, and Fredrik Norrena made 21 saves for Columbus, has dropped three straight following a four-game winning streak.

After a scoreless first period, a power-play tally put Detroit up 1-0 in the second. Mikael Samuelsson made a near perfect pass to Lebda, who was camped inside the left circle and rifled a long slapshot that breezed past Norrena's stick and went up and under the crossbar at 1:57.

Columbus quickly countered with an odd-man rush, but Hasek made a sliding save on a shot by Nash. Nikolai Zherdev missed the net 20 seconds later, and the Blue Jackets kept the pressure on but could not convert on the man- advantage after Ledba went off for interference.

Lebda was also crucial to Detroit's second tally, as he drew the puck to the middle of the ice before ripping a blazing slapper that got through traffic and deflected off the outstretched pad of Norrena. Holmstrom was on the doorstep to backhand the disc into the net and give the Red Wings a 2-0 cushion at 10:27.

A short-handed marker for Detroit then made it 3-0, as Datsyuk nabbed the puck off a giveaway by Anders Eriksson in the neutral zone, moved in and sent a soft wrist shot behind the stick of Norrena with 2:44 remaining in the stanza.

Detroit made it 4-0 when a shot by Kris Draper was tipped by Holmstrom and deflected off the skate of the Blue Jackets' Rostislav Klesla before finding the back of the net just 49 seconds into the third period.

Nash put Columbus on the board with 59 seconds remaining in the contest when he stuffed a wraparound attempt past a diving Hasek.

"The game is 60 minutes," said the Blue Jackets' Sergei Fedorov. "We played 20 minutes pretty hard, and then for some reason, we didn't play the next 40 minutes as sharp as we should. We made a couple of crucial mistakes, but we're working on it. It's an experience. It's a negative experience, but we have to take it in stride."

Game Notes

The Red Wings host the Blue Jackets on Tuesday before opening a season-ending home-and-home series Thursday at Chicago...The Red Wings played without Nicklas Lidstrom, the team's top scoring defenseman, due to a lower back strain. He is listed as day-to-day... Detroit holds a 4-3 lead in the season series with Columbus and has won 11 of the last 15 matchups overall.