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Wings streak into break with win over Ducks

Jan 24, 2008 - 7:44 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) - In a rematch of the 2007 Western Conference finals, and potential preview for 2008, the Detroit Red Wings battled to a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

Brian Rafalski and Valtteri Filppula scored goals for Detroit and Dominik Hasek made 24 saves, losing his bid for his 80th career shutout when Chris Pronger scored on a power play with 8:05 left in the game.

Anaheim saw its team-record tying seven-game home winning streak come to an end.

"This was the game we expected today, that they would come out very physical on us," Hasek said. "We talked about it before the game and we said to ourselves that we have to be as physical as they are, especially in the first period. So there were not really any surprises from their side, we knew it was going to be a physical game. We scored the first goal and they never could came back."

"We had some opportunities," Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin said. "They scored a 5-on-3 goal and they scored on a broken stick. (Jean-Sebastien Giguere) made some big saves, but we had some chances as well."

Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said the game had a postseason-like intensity.

"These are two really competitive teams, teams that fought really well in the conference finals last year and two teams that really want to win," Lidstrom said. "That came out tonight and you could tell that the intensity was really high and as close to a playoff game as you can get in the middle of the season. It was a good measurement stick for our team to face off against their team tonight."

Beauchemin said the Red Wings may have been sending a message should the teams meet again in the playoffs.

"We're two good teams, playing hard every night. You never know what could happen," Beauchemin said. "Playoffs, that's far, far away from now. We have a lot of games coming up before that. We have to keep playing the way we've been playing and we'll have more wins than losses."

"I think there is a big rivalry," Hasek said. "First of all they are the Stanley Cup Champions, and they play like champions. They are a very confident team, and for us, they beat us last year, and most of the time we have lost in this building, so it was a big game for us, to show them that we can win in this building also," Hasek said.

"The level of the game was very high," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. There's some areas obviously we'd like to improve on. I thought we turned the puck over far too many times in the neutral zone.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock was pleased with his team's effort.

"It took us a while to be as good as we could be, but we feel we played well," Babcock said. "We didn't give up a whole bunch. They forecheck hard and kept it in, but we did a good job. Our special teams were good. All in all, we did a good job. We've got a good hockey club and we're going to play hard.

Detroit took a 1-0 lead when Rafalski scored at 11:52 of the first period with the Red Wings on a two-man advantage.

Lidstrom slid a cross-ice pass to Rafalski, who fired a shot that beat Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere to the glove side as Todd Bertuzzi (slashing) and Todd Marchant (tripping) sat in the penalty box.

There were 14 penalties called in the first period, including a fight between Pronger and Dan Cleary, and five roughing calls.

"It was a big game and emotions run high," Anaheim's Rob Niedermayer said. "We definitely have to control that a lot better. Especially early on. You can't get behind the eight-ball. We gave them a few power plays early and they got some momentum from that."

Filppula and Tomas Kopecky worked a nice give-and-go to make it 2-0 at 7:52 of the second period.

The pair came in 2-on-1 with Filppula passing to Kopecky, then taking a return pass and beating a sprawling Giguere to his glove side.

"Beauchemin broke his stick, so he had to get rid of his stick," Filppula said. "We were able to go two on one, with Kopey, and he gave me an empty netter, basically, so he made a really nice play."

"I was trying to make a pass and the shaft broke in half," Beauchemin said. "There was a guy stretching for a breakaway. He was hiding behind the (defenseman), so I tried to hit him with a breakaway pass."

Pronger got the Ducks on the board, one-timing a slapshot off a pass from Ryan Getzlaf.

The assist gave Getzlaf, who will play in Sunday's All-Star game along with Pronger and teammates Corey Perry and Scott Niedermayer, a point in his league-high 15th consecutive game.