Chicago began the season 21-0-3, an NHL record, and all but coasted to the Presidents’ Trophy.

“I think all year long we’ve been in a very favorable position,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “I don’t think we’ve been against it in any areas as far as many stretches in games being down or definitely in a series we haven’t been down.”

The Blackhawks, who trail Detroit 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, needed five games to eliminate Minnesota in the first round.

“It’s a great test for us, it’s a good challenge for us,” Quenneville said. “The adversity that we’re in right now we’ve got to find a way to overcome it and it will be a good challenge at the end of the day to find out about everybody.”

Simona de Silverstro, who’s in town to test at Belle Isle, is a fan of Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller, who the Wings eliminated in seven games in the first round of the playoffs.

“Oh,” Brunner laughed when told she wasn’t a fan of his. “Maybe she should become a Red Wings fan.”

Brunner also was all over Twitter for a video that saw him nailing teammate Gustav Nyquist just below the waistline with a soccer ball.

The incident occurred prior to Game 3. In that game, Brunner assisted on a goal by Nyquist to opening the scoring.

“I want to see the whole thing,” Brunner said. “I heard they showed it on TV in Canada. They showed us in warm-ups and then they showed his goal. That’s funny that I assisted on his goal too.

“That only happened because we’re not in the PK meetings, so we were the only two guys out there playing soccer,” Brunner continued. “We play to 10, and this guy, normally, you give him the ball and he can never give you a nice ball back. So he gets the ball up here (pointing to the outside of his head) and if I try to touch it I’m never able to get it back to him. It was like 10 times in a row so I picked it up and threw it at him. Lucky I hit the bull’s eye.”

Through three games of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series against the Chicago Blackhawks, they have yet to record a goal with the man advantage.

At practice Wednesday, Wings coach Mike Babcock tinkered with his forward units, keeping his top two lines during 5-on-5 play intact on the power play.

“We went through every single scoring chance we had on the power play in this series this morning,” Babcock said. “We talked a lot about our power play. We had a run through and let the guys see what’s going on and we tried to make adjustments. We’ve had some real good looks, but we haven’t scored yet. Sometimes when you get real good looks and you haven’t scored you stop shooting.”

If things remain the same from practice, Justin Abdelkader will be added to the power play, skating alongside Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen.

“I don’t know, we’ll see, it was just one practice,” Abdelkader said when asked if he will see power play time in Game 4 Thursday at 8 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena. “If I get the opportunity I’m just going to do what I do, go to the net, retrieve pucks and be hard on the puck.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Abdelkader added. “Things are constantly changing, constantly trying different things. If my name gets called I will be ready.”

The Wings are 0-for-12 on the power play this series, registering 16 shots on goal.

“Chicago does a good job blocking shots,” Abdelkader said. “We just have to find ways to get the pucks on the net, create second and third chances by getting pucks back. They’re a good penalty killing team and any team that’s that good on the penalty kill for that long is doing a lot of good things. I think just commitment to their system is why it’s working. We have to find a way.”

Chicago has not allowed a power-play goal this entire postseason, killing off 29 straight penalties.

“We need good net front presence, let’s pound the puck, let’s get it back, let’s throw it in there and create some chaos,” Babcock said. “We’ll get one. We’ll loosen up and get going. Right now our power play has to be a bigger factor than it has been in this series.”

Henrik Zetterberg, Valtteri Filppula and Daniel Cleary made up the other unit up front, while the blue line parings remained the same – Damien Brunner/Niklas Kronwall and Carlo Colaiacovo/Jakub Kindl.

Colaiacovo agrees with his coach about creating more chaos in front of the Blackhawks goal.

“Get pucks through, traffic in front of the goalie and create chaos in front on their net,” Colaiacovo said. “It’s not like we’re not getting chances. The pucks don’t go in and sometimes those things happen. We’re confident in the groups we put out there. When they’re out there they’re going to get a goal or create momentum for us. That’s what a power play is for. You want to take advantage of the extra man, but you also want to make sure the momentum that comes off it stays on your side.

“Sometimes the best thing is to just get it down there, whether it’s on net or not on net, you just want to get it down there and create some chaos with their killers,” Colaiacovo continued. “When you’re retrieving pucks off rebounds or during chaos that’s when the penalty killers move and things open up.”

Through three games of the series, the first power play unit was made up of Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Franzen, while Filppula, Cleary and Gustav Nyquist was the second unit.

“We have to find a way to get through their layers of players that they present when we decide to take the shot,” Kronwall said. “We have to get the pucks in there. We haven’t done a good enough job of that. We have guys in front that are doing a great job and we have to make sure we get the puck in there.”

Zetterberg feels the Wings are generating more chances early in games with the man advantage, but once they have to lead it changes.

“Later in games when we have the lead and we get the chance on the power play we’re a little too cautious,” Zetterberg said. “We just got to be on our toes, keep playing, go for the next goal. We’ve been better on 5-on-5 and now we’ve just got to do it when we get a power play, too.

“It shows that they’re doing something right over there, but it’s a challenge for us to get that first one and hopefully it will come (Thursday),” Zetterberg added.

There are just two teams – San Jose and New York Rangers – out of those that are still in the playoffs that have been penalized less than Chicago.

“When you’ve had some success it’s an ongoing challenge,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “They’re always looking for ways of doing different things and there’s probably going to be something we haven’t seen moving forward. So, it’s a changing of looks and making sure that you adapt. But commend the guys from the goalie on out on the job that they’re doing, but that’s always a work in progress.”

After winning 52 percent of the faceoffs in Game 1, they increased it to 55 and then 56 over the next two games.

“It’s definitely a factor,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ve got to get better in that area. That’s definitely an area that’s a point of emphasis going forward. All zones. All critical ones, special teams, PK, offensive-zone faceoffs we’ve given up a couple goals the last two games.”

Detroit’s first goal was directly associated with a lost draw in the Wings’ zone.

“Well, you’ve got a tendency to look at the guy you’re against and what his tendencies are and getting an even puck drop is what we’re looking for, finding ways where … if you’re not going to win it, we’ve got a 50/50 chance along the line,” Quenneville said. “So, there’s more work we can do and not just counting our centermen coming up with the win and not just laying the onus on them.”

Every Wing that took at least two faceoffs in Game 3 won at least 55 percent of the time.

“Our power play, it starts with faceoffs,” Quenneville said.

And at the end of the Wings’ 3-1 win Monday night in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Western Conference tempers began to boil over.

The rough stuff began when Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith skated by and took a cheap shot at Damien Brunner to draw a minor for roughing with the Blackhawks trialing 3-1 with six minutes to play in the third period.

“It’s always a fine line not to get penalties and play on the edge,” Chicago defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said. “We’ve had really good penalty killing so far in these playoffs, but we know they have a lot of skilled players who can make a difference in a game if we give them too many power plays. It’s a fine line there, but you’ve got to play tough. It’s obviously a different level in the playoffs. If you could play a little bit harder on their top guys, that would be good I think.”

With a minute to play, Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell was assessed a cross checking penalty on Daniel Cleary, while the Wings forward was defenseless on the ice.

“Just playing like that doesn’t give us the green light to take unnecessary or undisciplined penalties,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “There’s always a discipline that goes behind everything we talk about, whether it’s playing with a purpose … but the purpose of discipline is No. 1.”

The final penalty was on Chicago forward Andrew Shaw, a 10-minute misconduct with 13 seconds left in regulation.

“We need to be more on the edge, like we played last game,” Chicago forward Marian Hossa said. “We have great intensity and I felt like lots of energy. Also, you don’t want to go over the board and take bad penalties, because they’ve got really good players on the power play. You have to be smart about it.”

Things were actually quite chippy in the first period.

Just four minutes in, Andrew Shaw caught Brendan Smith with an elbow.

Later, Brent Seabrook knocked Daniel Cleary off balance sending him crashing into the net and then into the end boards. Keith then motioned like he was going to push the net over top of Cleary while he was on the ice.

Detroit’s only power play of the period came as a result of a scrum in the front of Howard between all the players on the at the time. Kyle Quincey and Bickell were both assessed two-minute unsportsmanlike penalties, while Shaw got the extra two for roughing.

“I think at the end, you could definitely see some of the frustration coming out,” Jonathan Ericsson said. “After whistles, they were maybe paying too much attention to us. They were doing things after whistles. That’s a good thing for us, if we can get them frustrated. We want to do that all day to them.”

Wings coach Mike Babcock isn’t ready to say that his squad has gotten under the Blackhawks’ skin.

“It’s playoff hockey,” Babcock said. “So it’s going to be battles out there and you don’t want to lose any of those battles. It’s going to be tough to play and I think we’re just going to have to keep doing the same things.”

Conversely, the Wings didn’t lose their temper in their 4-1 loss in Game 1.

“I think it’s a little bit of anger about what we are doing right now,” Blackhawks defenseman Michal Rozsival said. “We (didn’t) want to get behind 2-1 against an opponent like this. I think everybody is kind of, not happy, with the way we’ve played and I think it’s a good thing. It can give us a boost of energy. Playing with a little bit of anger going forward, you know, it’s not a bad thing. I think it’s going to help us (going) into Game 4 and obviously we have to play better and step up our game.”

“It should have been a two-minute penalty,” Babcock said. “This is the way I look at it. Those referees are trying to get to the Stanley Cup final like the rest of us and it’s fast. When I watch the replay and see it, it’s a penalty. They don’t get to watch the replay.”

With Franzen down in the corner, Duncan Keith lofted a pass out to Patrick Kane, who got behind the Wings’ defense and beat Jimmy Howard between the pads just 4:32 in.

“Yeah, you throw around terms like ‘must-win’ and all that … I think every game in the playoffs is a ‘must win.’ You can spin it however you want. Every game is huge. You want to win every time you take the ice. Being down 2-1 in their building, obviously that game in Game 4 is really big.”

Drew Miller and his fellow penalty killers experienced just that in Game 3 Monday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Niklas Kronwall had a shift length of two minutes and 46 seconds and Patrick Eaves was out there for 2:15.

But both of those shift lengths paled in comparison to the ones Miller and Jonathan Ericsson had to endure with Brendan Smith in the penalty box for holding. The stopwatch wasn’t clicked off on their shifts until it read 3:15.

“Three minutes, that must have been some sort of record,” Ericsson smiled after the game. “I was kind of standing still there in front of the net for a little while so I was able to catch some big breaths. I wasn’t as tired after three minutes as I was after two I think.”

Normal shift length for forwards is roughly 45 seconds and a bit longer for defensemen.

Penalty kill shifts tend to be shorter, as teams try to get quick changes as soon as possible.

“I’d like to forget that one,” Miller said. “It was a long one. When you get stuck on the penalty kill there it’s tough to get off. You try and stay tight, guys were blocking shots and Jimmy (Howard) made some big saves for us. The key is to just to survive it and get off the ice as fast as you can when you can. You have to fight through long shifts like that.”

Not helping matters was the fact that Smith’s penalty occurred in the second period, which meant the Wings had to cross center ice to get a shift change.

“We were pretty tired, we got caught out there and we couldn’t get the puck out,” Eaves said. “They had a lot of skill on the ice and had the puck. We just tried to keep them to the outside.”

Miller was playing in just his second game back after breaking his right hand on April 20 in Vancouver.

“That’s one of those shifts you don’t want to have but you try to get through it,” Miller said. “I felt like my legs were a lot better (Monday). You’re on the penalty kill trying to kill it off and you get stuck out there. From there it’s just desperation, you try and get through it and get the puck out.”

Miller blocked three shots on the three-minute plus shift, finishing with four total to go along with three hits.

“He does all the little things right, blocking shots, getting in on the forecheck, penalty kill and just working hard,” Howard said. “That (penalty kill) was huge. I think (Miller) blocked about five shots on the penalty kill. He’s such a key player for us. He does his job so well.”

Once Smith was released from the box, he joined the play giving the Wings three defenseman on the ice and two forwards.

It took another 1:15 until Detroit could finally get a clear long enough to get a change.

“They had some good chances,” Henrik Zetterberg said. “(Chicago) held onto the puck for a long time there. We stayed composed and Howie was there when we needed him.”

The Wings killed off all four of the Blackhawks’ power plays in Game 3.

“The biggest improvement we’ve seen with him in the lineup is our penalty kill,” Carlo Colaiacovo said. “(That) shift there in the second period I think he blocked five shots in a row. It was huge for that line to get a goal as well. Millsie is a guy who skates real well, blocks shots, plays with that edge, finishes checks and he’s been really key to us since he’s been back.”

The kill was huge and it may have been the spark the Wings’ offense needed as Gustav Nyquist scored just under four minutes later and it was followed up 31 seconds later by a goal from Miller.

“And (Miller) got rewarded with a goal, it just shows you that hard work pays off,” Howard said.

After scoring a goal on their first power-place chance in the series, Chicago has gone 0-for-8 with the man advantage.

“We weathered the storm there and then Gus made that great move to score and fortunately our line got out there and caused a little havoc down low,” Eaves said. “We jammed one in. It was a huge second period. You always want to set yourself up for the third period.”

Over half of Miller’s ice time, 6:25, came on the penalty kill.

“I take pride in the penalty kill and I want to get it done and killed off. Scoring a goal is big, too. I’ll take both. How about that?”

And there are a lot of them, which is why it’s understandable how he feels as stable as ever with whom he’s paired with now … Niklas Kronwall.

“I’m fortunate to play with him,” Ericsson said after the Wings’ morning skate at Joe Louis Arena Monday. “He’s our best defenseman by far. He’s always doing a good job for us every night. He makes it easy for me. We have a good way of communicating out there and we feed off each other and he makes things more comfortable for me out there.

“The more you play with each other the more comfortable you get,” Ericsson added. “When you keep switching it takes some time, but you learn. Maybe it doesn’t come right away, but it does.”

Ericsson compares his fellow Swede to one of the best to ever play in the NHL, Nicklas Lidstrom, who retired this past offseason.

“He’s really close, that’s why we call him Nick junior,” Ericsson said. “This year I played with everyone at the beginning of the season and then we got stable and stuck with the three pairs. Everyone is different. They all have different roles. It’s just sticking with whatever role that is and you just have to play your game too.”

Ericsson is 6-foot-4 and was the last player taken in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. And like most of the Wings’ prospects they had him spend a number seasons overseas before bringing him to Grand Rapids.

“They always had a good D corps here so it just took a while to get in,” Ericsson said. “That’s how they develop all the players here and I think they’ve done a good job. When you get up here most players are ready to stay up and not be up and down. You have to be patient. Everything doesn’t come all at one, you just have to work your way in.”

Ericsson raised his own bar high after his second short stint in Detroit and carried that over to a strong run in the 2009 playoffs.

But then came some very inconsistent play over the next few seasons as Ericsson found himself in the Wings’ final pairing on D most of the nights.

“It took him some time,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “He was a forward growing up. It took him awhile to learn the differences in the game. He played in the five-six pair, or third pair, for a number of years and played well for us. And he just kept getting better. He’s a real good person, works hard. He can make the pass, shoot the puck. He’s a big body, can fight well. We like him.”

Now with departure of a number of top four defensemen over the last few seasons, Ericsson, 29, is on the top pairing in charge of shutting down the opponent’s top units.

“With just the responsibilities that have come with that role, I think he’s been great,” Kronwall said. “Everybody in this organization knew that he could do it. They’ve known that for a few years, ever since he came in and played that great series, I think it was against Columbus, his first playoff. I think he’s really come into his own.

“(He’s) made the transition real smooth, easy,” Kronwall added. “He’s always one of those guys who wants the puck and talks a lot out there and makes it easy for you.”

Ericsson also has played a main role on the Wings’ penalty kill. Averaging over 18 minutes of ice time in the playoffs, 3:20 of it has come killing penalties.

“I don’t know how to put it in words how much he means to this club,” Kronwall said. “He’s out there playing big minutes, 5-on-5, a shut-down guy and plays obvious heavy minutes on the PK. He means a lot to this team and we’re really happy that he’s playing so well.”

Both Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson had brothers playing on the team.

“Obviously both of us are really proud today,” Kronwall said. “I think all Swedes are, really.”

Jimmie Ericsson had one goal in seven games, while Staffan Kronwall had an assist in 10 games.

After the win the Swedish players all put on gold helmets.

“That’s a tradition back in Sweden, anytime someone wins the championship at home the winning team always gets the gold helmets,” Kronwall said. “It’s something that’s been around for quite some time. It was cool seeing them out on the ice with them.”

Sweden beat Switzerland, 5-1, which meant Damien Brunner had to pay up on bets, which was buying dinner.