Red Wings 3, Blues 0

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[April 14, 2014]  ST. LOUIS — Red Wings 3, Blues 0: Justin Abdelkader scored twice and Petr Mrazek finished with 23 saves to record his second career shutout as visiting Detroit ended St. Louis' bid to win the Central Division title.

Riley Sheahan also tallied and Pavel Datsyuk notched a pair of assists for the Red Wings, who will make their 23rd consecutive postseason appearance when they visit Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston on Friday in the opener of the first-round series.

Ryan Miller turned aside 18 shots for the Blues, who were shut out for the third time during their six-game losing streak. St. Louis, which finished behind Colorado in the Central, will host the opener of its first-round playoff series against reigning Stanley Cup champion Chicago on Thursday.

Making his eighth career start, Mrazek made a pad save on Maxim Lapierre during a 3-on-1 rush midway through the second period. The 22-year-old's first NHL shutout came during a 14-save performance in a 5-0 win over Edmonton on Nov. 2.

After having a goal disallowed due to goaltender interference, the Red Wings broke through at 13:30 of the first period as defenseman Brian Lashoff's shot from the point deflected off the shoulder of Abdelkader and fluttered past Miller. Sheahan converted from the left faceoff circle with 3:41 left in the second to double the advantage before Abdelkader chipped Datsyuk's centering feed past Miller at 12:43 of the third.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Miller fell to 2-9-2 in 13 career starts versus Detroit. ... St. Louis is mired in its first six-game slide since a seven-game streak from Dec. 26, 2009-Jan. 7, 2010. ... Detroit opted to sit Fs Johan Franzen and Daniel Alfredsson, Ds Danny DeKeyser and Niklas Kronwall and G Jimmy Howard with Sunday's game having no impact on its playoff seeding. St. Louis played without Fs David Backes (foot), Brenden Morrow (foot), T.J. Oshie (upper body), Vladimir Sobotka (lower body), Patrik Berglund (upper body) and Vladimir Tarasenko (thumb) and Ds Alex Pietrangelo (undisclosed) and Barret Jackman (undisclosed).

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