Final Score: Detroit 6, Atlanta 3

Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Johan Franzen registered a goal and two assists as the NHL-leading Detroit Red Wings cruised past the Atlanta Thrashers, 6-3, at Philips Arena.

Brian Rafalski, Pavel Datsyuk, Jiri Hudler and Daniel Cleary also tallied for Detroit, which got its three-game road trip off to a good start and was coming off a 3-2 win over Philadelphia on Tuesday. The Red Wings have won four straight and seven of nine overall. Henrik Zetterberg had four assists in the victory.

Marian Hossa, who played for the Thrashers from 2005-2008 before being dealt to the Penguins at last year's NHL trade deadline, returned to Atlanta for the first time and tallied his 36th goal of the season and added a helper.

"I think we played a pretty good game," Hossa said. "Our goal was to get some shots on Kari (Lehtonen). There were some mixed boos and cheers. I enjoyed the atmosphere. I think it's good for every player to score against a former team."

Chris Osgood turned aside 31-of-34 shots to claim the win.

Slava Kozlov had a goal and an assist, while Bryan Little and Colin Stuart added markers for the Thrashers, who have dropped two straight after having their franchise-best six-game winning streak snapped in a 6-2 setback at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Atlanta's leading-scorer and captain Ilya Kovalchuk returned to the lineup after missing the team's last two contests with an upper-body injury and registered an assist.

Kari Lehtonen yielded six goals on 38 shots in defeat.

"We have a little bit of work to do," Thrashers head coach John Anderson said. "I thought we competed. We made some young mistakes on the backend. Osgood made some great saves in the first period."

Detroit drew first blood with 6:20 left in the first period just after the Thrashers' bench minor for too many men on the ice expired. The Red Wings maintained possession in the Atlanta end for the majority of the power play and as it ended Rafalski fired a wrister from the right circle that got by Lehtonen on the glove side.

After Kovalchuk was stopped by Osgood on a Thrashers' rush, Datsyuk took a head-man pass from Franzen and beat Lehtonen through the pads to give the Red Wings a 2-0 advantage with 7:56 left in the second.

Two minutes later Hudler's breakaway tally put the visitors up by a three-goal margin.

In the third period, Franzen shoveled home a rebound at 7:55 with Detroit skating with the man advantage to make it a 4-0 game. However, Little's power- play marker with 9:33 to go got the Thrashers on the board.

Hossa's tally 1 1/2 minutes later with both teams skating 4-on-4 allowed the Wings to regain a four-goal cushion, but Kozlov made it a 5-2 game at 13:16.

Cleary lit the lamp with 3:39 left for Detroit and Stuart closed out the scoring with 35 seconds left to account for the 6-3 final.

Game Notes

Detroit continues its road trip at Calgary on Monday, while the Thrashers begin a brief two-game road stint at Tampa Bay on Saturday...Zetterberg and Datsyuk extended their point streaks to seven games...The Red Wings have now won five straight away from home, improved to 22-10-5 as the visitor and are 9-2 all-time against Atlanta...The Thrashers fell to 14-19-2 at home this season...Kozlov now has a seven-game point streak.