DETROIT -- Marian Hossa returned to Joe Louis Arena on Wednesday for the first time as a Chicago Blackhawk, and, amidst the boos, witnessed firsthand how badly his former team could use his services.

Antii Niemi made 33 saves as the Blackhawks defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-0, shutting them out for the second consecutive game and handing them their third loss in a row.

It is the fifth time the Red Wings have been shut out this season -- all in the past 15 games. It is the second time they have been blanked in consecutive games and the fourth time they have been shut out at home.

Niemi is the fifth backup goalie to beat the Red Wings since Nov. 18 -- with all of those wins coming at Joe Louis Arena. Niemi (8-1-1) has four shutouts in 10 games.

“I thought lots of guys tried. I think, at this time right now, their roster is better than ours,’’ Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “It was evident as the game went on and we didn’t score. We had an opportunity on the power play (in the first period) to shoot one in the empty net and we couldn’t do that, and I thought it might have affected our game, for sure.’’

The already injury-riddled Red Wings lost another player earlier in the day, as defenseman Brian Rafalski was unable to play because of the flu. That left the club without three of its top five defensemen (in addition to Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson), all good puck-movers.

The Red Wings battled hard, playing much better than they did in a 3-0 loss at Chicago on Sunday. But they couldn’t match the Blackhawks’ skill and depth. Detroit’s scoreless streak stands at 141 minutes, dating back to Todd Bertuzzi’s goal at the 19-minute mark of the second period in Saturday’s 4-3 loss at Dallas.

“We got a lot of pucks to the net, there was a lot of rebounds lying around we just couldn’t get to,’’ Detroit’s Kris Draper said. “We had a good start but weren’t able to get that all-important first goal. When you’re struggling to score, when you have some of your big players out, you got to find a way to score early.’’

Chicago took what appeared to be an insurmountable 2-0 lead on Patrick Sharp’s goal during a four-on-four situation at 3:47 of the third period. Sharp flipped the puck over a sprawled Jimmy Howard during a scramble in front of the net.

Hossa, who was booed vociferously almost every time he touched the puck, assisted on the goal. Hossa led the Red Wings with 40 goals last season but signed a 12-year, $62.8 million free-agent contract with Chicago on July 1, as the salary cap prevented Detroit from matching that offer.

“When we got down 1-0, I thought we started to turn the puck over a little bit in the second half of the second period,’’ defenseman Brad Stuart said. “That might be from trying to make something happen from nothing because we haven’t scored in a while. But that’s not the way we have to do it. We have to keep sticking with the simple plays.’’

The Blackhawks took advantage of a Red Wings penalty for too many men on the ice late in the first period, as Patrick Kane opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 30-second mark of the second period. Kane blasted a shot from the top edge of the faceoff circle past Howard, who was screened by Troy Brouwer.

It is only the third power-play goal Detroit has allowed in its last 14 games.

Meanwhile, the Red Wings’ power play continues to sputter. They went 0-for-5 on Wednesday and are 5-for-58 in their past 16 games (8.6 percent). They have gone six consecutive games without a power-play goal.

“It’s huge in a game like this, we can use a power-play goal or two,’’ Stuart said.

Jonathan Toews scored with 1:18 remaining in the third period to seal the win.

“The guys battled hard out there for us, we just didn’t find the back of the net,’’ Howard said.

The Blackhawks opened up a 10-point lead over the third-place Red Wings in the Central Division.

“They were better two nights in a row, it’s that simple,’’ Babcock said.