A night of firsts in Anaheim Thursday added up to a victory for the Ducks, who survived the loss of their top defenceman and more penalty trouble.
Ryan Getzlaf's goal, his first in eight games, on the power play early in the third period stood as the winner in a 5-3 decision over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference final.
Ducks defenceman Ric Jackman, left, celebrates his goal against Detroit with right-winger Teemu Selanne, who had three points on Thursday.
(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)
Right-winger Teemu Selanne led the way with a goal and two assists — his first points in five games — to help even the best-of-seven series at 2-2 heading back to Detroit for Game 5 on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
"As a goal-scorer it's really tough sometimes when you can't score," said Selanne. "But it's nothing I haven't faced before. You just have to work hard and believe that those goals are coming."
Journeyman Ric Jackman, filling in for suspended defenceman Chris Pronger, scored his first-ever Stanley Cup playoff goal, while Corey Perry added his first of the series.
"We had a lot of guys step up in different situations," Getzlaf told CBC's Scott Oake. "Jackman gets a big goal for us coming in off the bench and hasn't been involved in too many [playoff] games so far."
Rob Niedermayer sealed Detroit's fate with an empty-net goal with 68 seconds left on the clock.
Dan Cleary scored twice for the Red Wings, with Todd Bertuzzi adding a single goal.
Without Pronger, who was banned one game for driving Detroit winger Tomas Holmstrom's face into the glass in the second period of Game 3, Anaheim was a more inspired bunch after the opening faceoff.
But the Ducks nearly paid for their undisciplined play, which hurt them in Tuesday's 5-0 loss.
With the game tied 3-3 and Niedermayer and Perry in the penalty box, Anaheim killed off its second two-man disadvantage at the start of the third period.
Getzlaf told Oake that was the turning point in the game.
"Our group did a great job rallying around each other there," he said. "Our penalty-kill has been questionable throughout the first part of this series and we came up huge tonight."
Later, with Cleary in the box for tripping, Getzlaf set up a screen at the point and snapped a shot stick side that beat Detroit goaltender Dominik Hasek for his third game-winning goal of these playoffs.
It was the Ducks' second power-play goal in five chances on the night after going 0-for-16 in the first three games of the series. Getzlaf said the difference was getting players in front of Hasek.
"Guys were battling hard in front [of the net]," Getzlaf said. "Another guy who hasn't been on the power play all year, Todd Marchant, and he does a great job in front of the net and we get a good screen [on the winning goal]."
Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle got yeoman's work out of his undermanned defence. Francois Beauchemin led all players with 34 minutes, 28 seconds of ice time, followed by Scott Niedermayer at 34 minutes and Sean O'Donnell at 24:06.
"Pronger is a pretty big part of our lineup and guys did a great job rallying around each other," said Getzlaf, who assisted on Jackman's goal and finished with a plus-1 rating, two shots and two blocked shots.
Jackman, who has spent eight years in the NHL with six teams, held his own in 6:37 of playing time. He was even with two shots and a blocked shot.
Detroit had two chances in the final two minutes of the second period to snap a 3-3 tie but was robbed by netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was yanked in Game 3 after allowing four goals on 13 shots.
He denied Valtteri Filppula on a backhand after the centre breezed by Scott Niedermayer at the Ducks' blue-line. Then, after Hasek thwarted Marchant at the other end, Giguere foiled Cleary on a 2-on-1 break with Mikael Samuelsson.
Red Wings down early
Down 3-1, the Red Wings pulled even with a pair of second-period power-play goals.
Centre Robert Lang skated behind the Ducks' net and fed a pass in the crease to Bertuzzi, who fought off Beauchemin and tapped the puck between the post and Giguere's left skate.
Eight minutes later, Detroit took advantage of a Rob Niedermayer hooking penalty. With Giguere out of position, Cleary took a nifty pass from Bertuzzi and had two whacks at the puck before lifting it over the outstretched goaltender.
"I thought we did a lot of good things but I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit," said Detroit coach Mike Babcock. "They [Ducks] had a couple of seeing-eye pucks tonight."
Both teams capitalized on turnovers to score their first goal of the game — Perry for Anaheim and Cleary for Detroit.
After Jackman beat Hasek on the Ducks' fourth shot of the opening period, Selanne made it 3-1 with his first goal since Game 4 of a Round 2 series against Vancouver.
With files from the Canadian Press
