Ducks and Red Wings Series heads to Detroit tied 1-1

On paper the first round NHL best of seven Western Conference series between the Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings favors the No. 2 seeded Ducks.

However, the Red Wings, seeded No. 7, are no pushover and showed that by splitting the first two games in Anaheim, with game 3 scheduled for Saturday in Detroit.

On Thursday, the Red Wings tied the series with their 5-4 overtime win, but in the process lost Danny DeKeyser a defenseman. DeKeyser suffered a broken right thumb and is out for the rest of the postseason.

Mike Babcock, the Red Wings head coach said losing DeKeyser was a bit blow to the club, but he said his team would regroup and look forward to taking a 2-1 lead in the series on Saturday.

Babcock will replace the injured rookie DeKeyser with another rookie Brian Lashoff. Babcock said Lashoff was a smart player, competes hard and is a great penalty killer.

Detroit needs to sure up if defense as they blew a third period lead of three goals against Anaheim only to be saved in overtime by Gustav Nyquist who scored after just 1:21 had been played in the extra period.

The Red Wings are hoping that the deafening roar their home garden is able to produce will help jump start them to a 2-1 series lead on Saturday.

Anaheim was a 5-2 winner in their last game in Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. In that game, the Ducks scored three third period goals to walk away with the win.

Detroit must tighten its defense. In game 2, the Red Wings scored two goals in just the first four minutes of play and eventually jumped to a 3-0 lead. The Ducks narrowed the lead in the second period to two goals, but Detroit extended to a three-goal lead after only 20 ticks of the clock in the third period.

However, they then allowed the Ducks to score three times in a span of just 10 minutes. The Red Wings took the 4-1 lead and sat back and allowed the Ducks to take control of the action and send wave after wave after wave, which tied the game at 4.

Anaheim cannot allow themselves to fall behind in Detroit. The Red Wings learned a lesson in Anaheim giving up three third period goals and nearly losing the game. That will not happened in Detroit with their home crowd cheering them on.

Look for another fast paced back and forth game, with the Red Wings scoring early, but the Ducks coming back to take a 2-1 series lead with a win.