DETROIT ? When nothing less than a Stanley Cup will do, the Detroit Red Wings figure there’s no use celebrating along the way.

Brendan Shanahan had two goals and two assists and Dominik Hasek made 16 saves for his third shutout of the playoffs as the Red Wings eliminated St. Louis with a 4-0 victory Saturday in Game 5 of their second round series.

After the game, the Red Wings were businesslike not the least bit giddy despite reaching the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1998, the year they won their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

“I think we’ve got pretty good perspective,” Shanahan said.

After failing to advance past the second round for three straight seasons, Detroit restocked its already talented roster last summer by trading for Hasek and signing free agents Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille. Detroit will face the winner of the Colorado-San Jose series. The Red Wings have won eight of their last nine games.

“We had our best game of the playoffs,” Detroit coach Scotty Bowman.

Jiri Fischer and Tomas Holmstrom scored second-period goals and Shanahan sealed the victory with a goal with 3:03 left and then an empty-netter with 41.5 seconds left. .

A difficult challenge was made even tougher for the Blues when they lost defenseman Chris Pronger, their captain, to a season-ending knee injury in Game 4.

Sharks 5, Avalanche 3

Denver Mike Ricci and Teemu Selanne scored in a 3:05 span of the third period as San Jose rallied to beat Colorado to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

Colorado led 3-2 after the two teams combined for five goals in a 5:58 span of the second period, but Ricci tied it 5:59 into the third with his fourth goal of the playoffs.

Colorado goalie Patrick Roy stopped a redirected shot by Scott Thornton, but the puck bounced right to Ricci, who punched in the rebound from just outside the crease.