Maple Leafs 5, Red Wings 1

Maple Leafs rout Red Wings; Jason Williams has fractured fibula

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

Toronto -- You would have thought the Red Wings would have had bit more pep in their step Saturday night. After all, they came in fresh and on a three-game winning streak, their former captain Steve Yzerman was among the pregame honorees and they were playing a Toronto Maple Leafs team that hadn't won at home all season and had played in Carolina the previous night.

Not so much.

The Wings reverted back to an earlier and uglier version of themselves, getting run out of Air Canada Centre by the 3-7-5 Maple Leafs, 5-1 in the annual Hockey Hall of Fame game.

"It's disappointing," Brad Stuart said. "There was a lot of history in the building tonight and we threw a stinker out there for all of them."

Adding to the night's misery, the Wings lost yet another forward. Jason Williams is expected to be lost for at least eight weeks after fracturing his right fibula eight minutes into the second period.

His right leg gave out on him in a collision with Jeff Finger behind the Leafs' net.

"That's the way it goes," coach Mike Babcock said. "There's nothing you can do about it. Losing Willie is a blow for us. He's playing more minutes and in more situations than we had anticipated, but there's no sense in worrying about the guys that aren't available. We have to find a way as a group to dig in."

So to review, the Wings now are playing without three of their top six forwards -- Johan Franzen (knee), Valtteri Filppula (wrist) and now Williams. They were without Patrick Eaves (foot) on Saturday, as well, though he is expected to be back in the lineup Wednesday.

"It's something we are going to have to fight through," captain Nick Lidstrom said. "Other forwards are going to play more and they are going to have to take advantage of their ice time. We need all of us to play better now."

The lone highlight for the Wings was Danny Cleary getting his 100th career goal. He got it 5:59 of the third period, taking a deft pass from Brian Rafalski. But the Wings already were down 3-0 at that point.

"I didn't think we looked very fresh or on top of things for a team that didn't play last night," Babcock said. "We've got to be way better than that."

The Wings were scrambling and sloppy throughout the game. On the Leafs' first goal, defenseman Jonathan Ericsson went looking for a little retribution on Colton Orr and took himself out of position. Earlier in the period, Orr leveled Brett Lebda with a high elbow in the neutral zone. Ericsson chased him around on two shifts and never got a good lick on him.

With Ericsson missing his check on Orr up ice, backchecking Kris Draper fell, and the Leafs went in on a two-on-one rush. Wayne Primeau snapped a shot past Chris Osgood.

"We didn't respond very well after they scored that first goal," Lidstrom said. "I thought we had just started to get our legs under us and we were starting to take control, but that first goal set us back."

The second goal was even more dispiriting. It came with 25.7 seconds left in the first period. With the Wings running around in front of Osgood, Jason Blake fired a shot from the slot that got through Osgood. Phil Kessel, who started the rush, stuffed it in -- his first goal with the Leafs.

The third goal came 5:21 into the second after the Wings failed to cash in on back-to-back power-play chances. With the second power-play unit spent and caught up ice, the Leafs' Lee Stempniak, Matt Stajan and Finger went in three-on-two. Stempniak made a nice play to Finger, who beat Osgood from between the circles.

The Wings' power play -- 0-for-5 including 13 seconds worth of a two-man advantage Saturday -- has scored once in the last 18 tries.

"I thought we had opportunities," Babcock said. "The kid (goalie Jonas Gustavsson) was sensational. Give him credit. We don't have the same pop on two units that we did, but we still have a pretty good first unit."

Gustavsson stopped 35 of 36 shots.

The Leafs put the game out of reach in the third on a power-play goal by John Mitchell, then a goal by Alexei Ponikarovsky, on a backhand shot that deflected off Lebda through Osgood's leg pads.

"Mentally we weren't quite where we needed to be," Stuart said. "Things we should have been prepared for we weren't and it showed up on the scoreboard. But we have to keep going. There's no time for feeling sorry for ourselves."

Ice chips

The Wings were well represented during the pregame ceremonies honoring the five new Hall of Fame inductees. Besides inductees Steve Yzerman, Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull -- all members of the Wings' 2002 Stanley Cup championship team -- the ceremony featured former Wings players Ted Lindsay, Bill Gadsby, Marcel Pronovost and Borje Salming, and ex-Wings coach Scotty Bowman.

... The Leafs lost the services of defenseman Michael Komisarek (lower-body injury) in the third period.

chris.mccosky@detnews.com