NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Detroit Red Wings can take a couple days to rest up. The NHL's best team in the regular season won't miss the Western Conference semifinals this year.

Nicklas Lidstrom and Jiri Hudler each scored, and the Red Wings closed out their opening series by beating the Nashville Predators 3-0 in Game 6 on Sunday.

Brian Rafalski added an empty-netter with 4.8 seconds left. Goalie Chris Osgood stopped 20 shots for the shutout in his second straight playoff start as top-seeded Detroit became the first road team to win in this series.

With the victory, Detroit passed Toronto for second on the list of playoff series won with its 59th.

Nashville had hoped to use hot goalie Dan Ellis and an earsplitting crowd to force Game 7 in Detroit on Tuesday night. But the Predators missed their best scoring chance when David Legwand hit a post in the first period, and they failed to advance out of the first round for a fourth straight postseason _ each time on their home ice.

The eighth-seeded Predators had no pressure in a series few thought they'd get a chance to play in. Their season featured a change in owners and the unloading of several top players under previous owner Craig Leipold. Nashville couldn't capitalize on a soldout crowd that tried to help by screaming and waving free towels at every opportunity.

Ellis stopped 40 shots after setting a franchise playoff record with 52 saves in Friday night's 2-1 overtime loss in Detroit. That was the most through regulation in a postseason game since May 24, 1996, when Tom Barrasso had 56 for Pittsburgh in an Eastern Conference final loss to Florida.

But neither Ellis nor the fans could score.

Detroit, however, always seemed to find someone to put the puck in the net.

It started Sunday when Lidstrom took a shot from past the red line in the second. Ellis came out to the edge of the crease only to see the puck bounce a few feet in front of him and into the net for a 1-0 lead at 13:44 of the second.

Nashville had a chance to answer. The Predators went on the power play and had 54 seconds of a 5-on-3 after a tripping penalty on Kris Draper at 14:43. Detroit killed off the penalties.

Then Hudler sealed the victory at 3:52 in the third, flipping a shot past Ellis' glove.

The Predators played a second straight game without captain Jason Arnott, whose 72 points in the regular season tied for the team lead. But they got back Michigan native Legwand, who has missed the three games in Detroit to protect his bruised left foot, and forward Scott Nichol, who broke his thumb in the opening minutes of Game 1.

They took the first five shots and hit everything in red and white. One of the best hits came near the end of the first period when Shea Weber knocked down Johan Franzen.

But Osgood, who won Game 5 after replacing Dominik Hasek in the middle of a Game 4 loss here on Wednesday night, stopped all nine shots he faced in the first and had a little luck. The shot by Legwand bounced off the post and skittered cross ice away from the goal.

The Red Wings may have been a bit tired from taking a franchise-record 53 shots in regulation in Friday night's 2-1 overtime win. Pavel Datsyuk couldn't collect a cross-ice pass with room to shoot on the power play, and Valtteri Filppula had half the net to shoot into and slapped his shot wide left late in the first.