The Red Wings' Dan Cleary celebrates his first-period goal against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday in Detroit. (Carlos Osorio/Associated Press)

This spring has been a wonder for Daniel Cleary.

The role player from Newfoundland and Labrador came into Game 1 of the NHL Western Conference final on Sunday afternoon with two game-winners, nine points and an excellent plus-10 on the plus-minus rating for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Cleary scored twice to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Joe Louis Arena.

"I came here as a tryout," Cleary said of his arrival in Detroit four years ago. "They gave me a chance to be a player."

Johan Franzen, Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg (into an empty net) added markers for the defending champs, while Adam Burish and Kris Versteeg replied for a plucky Hawks, who had already upset Calgary and Vancouver in earlier rounds.

The line of Zetterberg, Franzen and Cleary not only smothered Chicago forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews defensively, they contributed four of Detroit’s five goals.

"Hank is always around a lot of plays, he's holding on to the puck a lot," Franzen said. "I think we play simple as a line, just making plays. We try to get pucks to the net and I try to stay open."

But tied 2-2 after Versteeg's goal early in the third, the more experienced Wings took over.

Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was having a good outing when things began to go wrong through no fault of his own, such as when a crowd gathered in front of him just past the seven-minute mark.

A shot from the point hit Detroit's Samuelsson in the leg and fell in front of him. Samuelsson circled to the right, then let one rip.

Khabibulin didn't pick it up until too late and at 7:32 it was 3-2.

Less than 90 seconds later it was 4-2 Red Wings, thanks to the simple notion of shooting at the net.

Cleary tipped a waist-high shot from the point just enough to fool the Chicago netminder and the puck went in for the winger's second of the game.

Cleary would miss a breakaway, and a chance at the hat trick, with about five minutes to go when a backhand attempt went wide.

"We gotta play perfect hockey and today … even though we were 2-2 in the third where we probably would love to be there at that stage of the game, we've got to be better," said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville.

Hawks had it tied

Chicago came into the game knowing it needed to get on the power play, given the Wings' struggles this post-season when a man short (only 72.5% penalty-killing success).

Detroit didn't take a penalty until early in the third, although it came at a significant time with the Blackhawks down 2-1.

Jonathan Ericsson took a holding penalty and shortly afterward, a shot from the point by Brent Seabrook deflected off two Detroit defencemen and the stick of Chicago's Dustin Byfuglien.

Untouched at the side of the open cage to the left of goalie Chris Osgood was the Hawks' Versteeg, who easily popped it in for a 2-2 tie at 3:12.

"They're going to get some offence, they've got a great team," said Osgood. "But I thought we really did a good job of backchecking and getting in their faces and not letting them turn up, and taking away their time and space, which is huge for us."

Ossie's luck ran cold early

The Blackhawks opened the scoring for the game and the series.

Osgood tried to play a shoot-in right back out but instead, the puck hit a leg that sent the disk first to the corner and then back out of a scramble toward the net.

Burish was circling the cage on the forecheck and arrived in front of Osgood at the same time as the puck. The winger tapped in it and it was 1-0 Chicago.

A few minutes later, Cleary intercepted the puck in his own end and raced out on a two-on-two down the left side.

Just above the left circle, he sent a wicked wrister up over the left shoulder of a surprised Khabibulin and it was 1-1 at 8:23 of the first.

Detroit outshot Chicago 14-8 in the period.

"I don't think we were patient enough," said Toews, the Blackhawks captain. "We were exposing the puck a little bit, we didn't protect it well enough and when you turn it over, they're not an easy team to get that puck back from.

"I think we wasted a lot of energy on defence tonight."

Nikolai versus the arena

Khabibulin was particularly impressive on an early penalty in the second period when he made four excellent stops, including a pair off Franzen that left the forward smashing his stick in frustration against the glass.

Using his size and strength to best advantage in the corner, Franzen was able to get position on Duncan Keith so when the defender tried to shovel the puck along the end boards to Seabrook, the Detroit star was able to intercept.

He swept to the left side of the net and put a neat wrap-around by Khabibulin for 2-1 at 16:38. It was the third shorthanded goal of the day.

Detroit outshot Chicago 14-7 in the middle period and was 28-15 through 40 minutes and 43-32 overall.

With files from The Associated Press