Ducks hand Wings seventh home loss in eight games (with photos)
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – The Anaheim Ducks handed the Detroit Red Wings their seventh loss in the last eight games at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday night.
Corey Perry and Livonia native Ryan Kesler each scored twice to propel the Ducks to a 4-3 win over the Wings. Darren Helm, Tomas Jurco and Danny DeKeyser each scored for Detroit, while Jimmy Howard made 31 of 35 saves in the loss. USA Hockey NTDP alum John Gibson stopped 24 of 27 for the Ducks in the win.
“We weren’t good enough, they were good, credit to them for sure,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “They looked impressive. Now, I didn’t think we managed the puck well enough, so when you turn pucks over, you end up playing more in your end, you end up not being able to apply as much pressure as we want to apply, so overall not good enough.”
Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said the home woes may stem from a problem with trying to do too much on the ice.
“Maybe we keep it a little more simpler on the road,” Zetterberg said. “When we come home and play here, maybe we want to do a little too much, instead of keeping it simple and getting pucks deep. Most of the time when we get pucks deep, we’re creating chances, we’re spending time in their zone.”
For Howard, it was his first taste of action since Jan. 11.
“It’s been a while,” Howard said. “I’m just going to go out there and compete and try to hope for the best that I can get points for the guys.”
Photos by Michael Miller/MiHockey
Helm opened the scoring just 1:10 into the game when he took a feed from Brendan Smith off the boards, sneaked behind the Anaheim defense for a breakaway and made a great move on Gibson.
Kesler, a Livonia native, potted his ninth of the season 7:25 into the frame to even things up at one. Former Michigan Wolverines standout Andrew Cogliano maintained control of the puck along the boards, winning a battle before feeding the puck down low to Jakob Silfverberg. Silfverberg then found Kesler in front for the goal.
Perry gave the Ducks the 2-1 lead late in the period, taking a great saucer pass from former Plymouth Whalers forward Rickard Rakell before moving from forehand to backhand on Howard for the goal.
Jurco scored his second of the season near the halfway mark of the middle frame to knot the game at two aside. Jurco finished off a slick passing play that saw Smith and Gustav Nyquist make short passes across before landing on the stick of Jurco, who was all alone against Gibson. Jurco moved to the backhand and tucked the shot in the top shelf.
“Obviously, it’s good for me,” Jurco said. “I wanted to score for a while – obviously I want to score every game, but it’s hard, so it helped me a lot and I feel much better.”
Mike Green took a delay-of-game minor at 12:52 of the period to set Anaheim up with its second power play of the contest. Detroit killed it off and received a golden opportunity right after the kill, as the Wings were able to spring Green for a breakaway fresh out of the penalty box, but Gibson came up with a monumental glove save to keep the game tied.
At 2:28 of the third period, Perry walked in from the left circle to the slot virtually uncovered and deposited his second of the game into the net to give Anaheim the 3-2 lead.
Not to be outdone, Kesler added his second of the game, as well, walking through a relaxed Detroit defense and beating Howard above the pad and below the blocker to make it 4-2 just 4:12 after Perry’s go-ahead marker.
DeKeyser’s power-play marker, a bomb from the point, pulled Detroit back to within one, but it was as close as the Wings would get.
“I think we came out pretty good, we had some jump in our legs,” Zetterberg said. “We didn’t get the first goal, then slowly they worked themselves into the game… A lot of power plays that didn’t produce, DK’s I think that was 6-on-5, but we had a lot of opportunities, but once again, we couldn’t get enough going.”