CHICAGO -- When the Detroit Red Wings' stars are injured, they turn to other stars. Sunday afternoon, in Game 4 of the Western Conference final, Marian Hossa showed he is worth every penny that the Red Wings aren't paying him.

Hossa took a one-year offer from the Red Wings last summer instead of huge long-term deals with other teams.

He did it for a chance at the Stanley Cup. He has struggled at times in these playoffs, but when Detroit needed him Sunday -- when Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom were out with injuries -- he was the best player on the ice.

"I thought he was awesome today," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

"He played big, was physical, took the puck to the net. Him and Fil [Valtteri Filpullula] were fantastic."

Hossa scored the Wings' first goal, on a give-and-go from Filppula on a short-handed breakaway. He assisted on the third, which Filppula scored. He scored the fourth, which Babcock said "put a knife in 'em."

"When you're getting chances and the puck doesn't go in for you, it's human nature: You start pressing," Hossa said.

"I just knew I had to drive to the net more often, try to be more dangerous and play a little more physical. I just had to do that."

He made it sound so simple. And it did look simple. That's how easy this was. The Red Wings somehow whipped Chicago, 6-1, dominated this game without Lidstrom and Datsyuk -- and without Kris Draper and Andreas Lilja and Tomas Kopecky.

On the other hand, the Blackhawks were forced to play the Red Wings without Bobby Hull and Tony Esposito. So it was tough for them, too.

The Wings lead this series, 3-1. Game 5 is tonight, which gave the Blackhawks 72 hours to sign another goalie.

Their first option, Nikolai Khabibulin, is out with a lower-body injury, and the second option, Cristobal Huet, left Game 4 with a hole in his skill set.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville then turned to send his third goalie into the game -- only to find, to his astonishment, that it was Corey Crawford, who had played seven NHL games.

I wouldn't trust a guy who'd played seven NHL games to give me directions to the arena, let alone play goalie in Game 4 of the conference final. But what choice did Quenneville have? Khabibulin was out, and Huet was awful.

The next thing anybody knew, the Wings had a 5-on-3 against a guy playing his 314th NHL minute.

Henrik Zetterberg ended this science experiment mercifully, scoring against Crawford to make it 5-1.

The United Center crowd was so impressed with the Wings' resourcefulness that they chanted their admiration for "Dee-troit's pluck!" Quenneville didn't see it that way. He blamed his team's loss on ... the officials!

"I think we witnessed probably the worst call in the history of sports," Quenneville said. "They ruined the hockey game."

Quenneville was referring to a roughing penalty on Chicago's Matt Walker at the end of the first period.

I agree that a penalty that causes a team to lose by five goals would be the worst call in the history of sports, but Quenneville lost me when he said the Blackhawks were playing a hockey game.

The Blackhawks took an astounding 16 penalties, including three misconducts. They completely lost their composure and blew any chance at a comeback.

I knew the Blackhawks were young, but I didn't realize they were going through the Terrible Twos.

Quenneville can keep spinning, and the Blackhawks can keep pouting. The Red Wings don't care.

They showed again Sunday why Marian Hossa signed with them last summer, despite much bigger offers elsewhere: They are the best team in the NHL.