The Detroit Red Wings have extinguished flames and repelled sharks so far this spring. Now they get to go duck hunting.

Dominik Hasek posted 28 saves and Mikael Samuelsson scored twice late in the first period as the visiting Red Wings skated to a series-clinching 2-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal at HP Pavilion on Monday.

Mikael Samuelsson scores on Evgeni Nabokov in a 2-0 Red Wings victory.
(M.J. Sanchez/Associated Press)

Detroit took the best-of-seven series 4-2 and will meet the Anaheim Ducks in the conference final, beginning Friday (7:30 p.m. ET).

The last time the Red Wings reached the conference final in 2002, they won the Stanley Cup.

"We played two big, strong teams and have done well," Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said, referring to the Calgary Flames and Sharks.

"And now we are going to get another one."

Samuelsson's second and third goals of the playoffs were scored 4:26 apart and Hasek made them stand up with his 13th playoff shutout.

Samuelsson was drafted a distant 145th overall by San Jose in 1998 and made four uneventful appearances for the Sharks before being traded to the New York Rangers on June 24, 2001.
 
Since then, he has scored eight goals in 14 games against San Jose.

"Sammy is sneaky fast with his shot," Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said.

Chris Chelios notched two assists for the top-ranked Red Wings, who haven't blown a 3-2 series lead since the St. Louis Blues rallied to upset them in seven games in their 1991 division semifinal.

"We feel pretty good about ourselves," he said. "I just hope we can keep our momentum going and our success going."

Chelios, 45, has competed in 240 playoff games, leaving him just seven shy of Patrick Roy's NHL record.

"It is the age of your heart, to be honest, at this point," Sharks head coach Ron Wilson said of Chelios.

"Your age on your birth certificate has nothing to do with it."

Brett Lebda, sidelined the past six games with an injured ankle, returned to the lineup in time to replace Mathieu Schneider, who broke his left wrist in the first period of Detroit's 4-1 win in Game 5.

Evgeni Nabokov faced 22 shots for the fifth-seeded Sharks, and Joe Thornton was held off the scoresheet for a second straight game.

"We are going to look back at this series and we're going to kick ourselves probably until training camp," said Thornton, who led the Sharks with 11 playoff points.

San Jose rallied from a 3-2 series deficit to defeat Calgary in seven games in the 1995 conference quarter-finals.

But the Sharks have struggled when facing elimination, losing their last five must-win games and 10 of 14 overall.

"What I say or do is irrelevant as a coach," Wilson said. "If you need external motivation in an elimination game, you are in sad shape."

First period flurry

"Our start was unbelievable," Wilson continued. "We were physical, we had them hemmed in."

"They played their most physical game of the entire series," Red Wings defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom said. "You could tell that they were a desperate team."
 
Detroit opened the scoring when Johan Franzen flipped the puck up ice to Samuelsson, who broke in alone on Nabokov and scored on a backhand deke 15:26 into the contest.
 
Mike Grier had a glorious opportunity to knot it late in the period when Hasek inadvertently swept the puck to him behind the net, but was robbed on the wraparound by a diving Lidstrom.

"He made a great save and saved a goal," Hasek said. "That made a huge difference."

Moments later, Samuelsson split the defence and beat Nabokov high to the glove side to make it 2-0 with eight seconds left in the period.

"We made two mistakes and they scored two goals, and that was pretty much it," Wilson said. "They sat back, and Hasek did not make a mistake."

Hasek was impenetrable in the second period, foiling Steve Bernier twice on the same breakaway and making a pair of difficult stops on Patrick Marleau.

Craig Rivet came closest to solving Hasek in the stanza, but he shot wide of the open net as it was knocked off its moorings.

"They threw everything at us and we knew that was going to happen," Babcock said.

Hasek had an easier time of it in the third period as the toothless Sharks mustered only seven shots and little in the way of legitimate scoring chances.

With files from Sports Network