Red Wings-Ducks Game 4 Recap

photo: Julian H. Gonzalez, Detroit Free Press

(2) RED WINGS 6 -- (8) DUCKS 3

Series tied, 2-2

by Andrew Bogusch

Playing Game 4 of a series on the road when trailing two-games-to-one is a daunting task for most teams, but not the Detroit Red Wings. Thursday’s rout of the Ducks was their sixth straight victory in this scenario. That ties an NHL record and, most importantly, this best-of-seven series.

The Detroit offense, spurred by some line-juggling from Mike Babcock, finally overwhelmed Jonas Hiller, who had stopped 104 of 108 shots over the previous two games, both Anaheim wins. Johan Franzen scored at 11:49 and 19:24 of the first period after Corey Perry gave the Ducks an early lead. And after Perry knotted things up at 2-2 midway through the second, Marian Hossa beat Hiller twice in three minutes, two seconds to put the Wings ahead to stay.

All that offense came after Babcock put Franzen and Hossa around Valterri Filppula during the first period. “For whatever reason, we seemed to get a spark from that line,” said Babcock. “I figured it was time to change things up.”

“We played with a high tempo,” Franzen explained. “We need things like that to break down that goalie, so we did a good job tonight.”

Hiller was pulled after goal #5 2:46 into the final period. He called this the Ducks’ worst effort of the postseason. Anaheim head coach Randy Carlyle was particularly disappointed with Franzen’s first tally, a wrist shot from between the faceoff circles. Carlyle thinks it should have been an easy save for Hiller. Instead, it kickstarted the Wings after a slow start – not only had Perry scored 42 seconds into the game, but Anaheim was outshooting Detroit, 5-1.

The concern for the Ducks for Sunday’s Game 5 and beyond is the now-awake Red Wing offense. Hiller has to rediscover his magic from Games 2 and 3 while his defense tries to finally limit Detroit’s chances. The Wings have had no less than 37 shots in a game yet, and that’s too many for such a skilled group to be getting nightly.

Odds & Ends…This is the first game of the series decided by more than one goal…Ryan Getzlaf assisted on two Duck goals to extend his point-scoring streak to eight games…Brian Rafalski, Kris Draper and Andreas Lilja remain out for Detroit…Brett Festerling replaced James Wisniewski on the Anaheim blueline. Wisniewski will ride a stationary bike on Friday in hopes of playing in Game 5. He suffered a bruised lung in Game 4.