#8 ANAHEIM DUCKS over the #2 DETROIT RED WINGS 2-1
Series tied 3-3
Series tied 3-3
The Ducks are fighting the Red Wings to the finish
by Andrew Bogusch
Like the Capitals and Bruins in the hours before them, the Ducks survived a Game 6 to push their conference semifinal to the maximum. Game 7 is Thursday night in Detroit. Anaheim stopped Detroit’s two-game winning streak in the series because its best players played their best at Honda Center. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry had a goal and an assist apiece, and Jones Hiller made 38 saves after allowing eight goals in the previous two contests.
“We knew we wanted it tonight. We have a great team in here. We dug down and you [could] just feel it before the game – everybody was ready to play,” Perry said. Red Wing captain Nicklas Lidstrom said simply, “I think they were more desperate than we were. They came out stronger.”
After a scoreless opening period, Getzlaf jammed in a rebound for a power-play goal at 2:21 of the second. Fifteen minutes later, Perry deflected a Getzlaf wrist shot from the left post past Osgood for his seventh goal in nine games. Hiller kept the Red Wings off the board until Johan Franzen scored from the top of the crease with 2:25 to play. That setup a frenetic final seconds, which culminated with Hiller’s last great save of the night. The puck found Pavel Datsyuk alone at the top of the slot. He labeled a wrister for the top corner, but Hiller flailed with his glove to deny Datsyuk.
And that’s when Game 7 officially began. As the horn was sounding after Hiller’s save, Getzlaf and Marian Hossa squared off in the corner with the Duck center landing the majority of the punches. Perry got the better of Brian Rafalski, and Scott Niedermayer thumped Datsyuk. In all 46 penalty minutes were handed out to six players at the 20:00 mark.
Anaheim is 2-1 as a franchise in Game 7, while the Red Wings are just 3-3 in deciding games at Joe Louis Arena since 1991.
“We knew we wanted it tonight. We have a great team in here. We dug down and you [could] just feel it before the game – everybody was ready to play,” Perry said. Red Wing captain Nicklas Lidstrom said simply, “I think they were more desperate than we were. They came out stronger.”
After a scoreless opening period, Getzlaf jammed in a rebound for a power-play goal at 2:21 of the second. Fifteen minutes later, Perry deflected a Getzlaf wrist shot from the left post past Osgood for his seventh goal in nine games. Hiller kept the Red Wings off the board until Johan Franzen scored from the top of the crease with 2:25 to play. That setup a frenetic final seconds, which culminated with Hiller’s last great save of the night. The puck found Pavel Datsyuk alone at the top of the slot. He labeled a wrister for the top corner, but Hiller flailed with his glove to deny Datsyuk.
And that’s when Game 7 officially began. As the horn was sounding after Hiller’s save, Getzlaf and Marian Hossa squared off in the corner with the Duck center landing the majority of the punches. Perry got the better of Brian Rafalski, and Scott Niedermayer thumped Datsyuk. In all 46 penalty minutes were handed out to six players at the 20:00 mark.
Anaheim is 2-1 as a franchise in Game 7, while the Red Wings are just 3-3 in deciding games at Joe Louis Arena since 1991.
Other Odds & Ends…Getzlaf now has 20 points in the playoffs, including multi-point efforts in five of the last seven games…The Red Wings had won the last 13 times they had the chance to close out an opponent in Game 6…Brian Rafalski made his series debut on the Detroit blueline (upper-body injury).
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