Koivu’s play lifts Ducks to 4-1 victory over Detroit

Saku Koivu was named captain of the Finnish Olympic team last week partly because he still leads by example at 35.

His numbers haven’t been all the Ducks expected after he signed in the off-season. But the former Montreal captain blazed the trail in a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at the Honda Center on Tuesday, breaking a three-game losing streak.

Koivu scored a short-handed goal in the first period when he jumped on the puck in the neutral zone and skated in on Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, fighting his way in to put a shot on goal before sticking the loose rebound into the net at 5:37.

“That’s the inspiration you hope goes through your hockey club,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “You could feel it on our bench from the players. . . . It was very vocal at that point.”

The goal was Koivu’s ninth of the season and the 200th of his career, the 10th short-handed.

Nor was it the last short-handed chance of the game for Koivu, who sprinted out to a breakaway with Detroit holding another man advantage later, only to see Howard make the stop and hold on to the rebound.

Against the Red Wings’ power play, Carlyle said, Koivu’s “will outdid some of their skill.”

The Ducks got a hand from a rookie two minutes after Koivu’s goal when Matt Beleskey, a 21-year-old, scored his first NHL goal at 7:38 for a 2-0 lead. He had a long wait, not getting his first until his 24th NHL game, including two last season.

“Probably the longest drought of my life,” Beleskey said.

Another drought ended when Corey Perry, who hadn’t scored a goal in his last 10 games, gave the Ducks a 3-1 cushion with 6:31 left in the game after Detroit’s Valtteri Filppula backhanded the rebound of a point shot past Jonas Hiller with 8:57 remaining, briefly trimming the lead to one.

Hiller did his part against a Red Wings team that is awaiting the return of Henrik Zetterberg from a shoulder injury, making 38 saves and carrying a shutout into the third period.

The Ducks’ Kyle Chipchura added an empty-net goal with 7.8 seconds remaining for the final margin.

It was a much better performance for a Ducks team that was outscored, 13-6, in its last three games, all on the road.

“I thought we had a really strong first period,” Koivu said. “They had a couple of power plays but we got that one goal, and I thought we were real aggressive on our ‘PK’ and that got us the momentum.”

Momentum is something the Ducks haven’t been able to build this season, despite some false starts.

Still 12 points out of a tie for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot, they got center Ryan Getzlaf -- who shares the team scoring lead with Perry -- back Tuesday after he sat out four games because of a leg laceration.

They are awaiting the return of Teemu Selanne, who is scheduled to have stitches removed from his broken left hand today and could be back as soon as this week. Joffrey Lupul, another goal-scorer, is out longer term after undergoing back surgery Dec. 17.

But time is passing fast, with only 19 games before the Olympic break and only a 20-game stretch run after that.

“We’re looking to get everybody back in the lineup and be healthy, that’s one thing,” Koivu said.

“But I think at this point, we haven’t been as consistent as we’d like to.”

robynnorwood@verizon.net