Red Wings Surge Past Ducks With Four Late Goals, 6-4

The Detroit Red Wings found a new way to torment the Mighty Ducks at Anaheim Arena on Monday night.

Instead of blowing them out of the building right from the start, as they had in the past, the Red Wings teased the Ducks by sleep skating through the first two periods.

But with the game on the line, Detroit scored four third-period goals in a 6-4 victory before a sellout crowd of 17,174.

The Ducks could have moved ahead of Winnipeg in the race for the Western Conference’s final playoff berth and within two points of second-place Vancouver in the Pacific Division, but Sheldon Kennedy, Dino Ciccarelli and Steve Yzerman took care of all that.

Their third-period goals extended Detroit’s unbeaten streak to eight and stopped the Ducks’ three-game winning streak. It also was the Ducks’ 13th loss in 19 games at Anaheim Arena.

“I was suspecting we’d be out of gas in the third period, and I was right,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “We were playing the best team in the league right now, and for two periods we played them pretty good.”

But after the Ducks killed off a two-man disadvantage early in the third period, they seemed to collapse.

Kennedy scored at 5:39 to make the score 3-3. Ciccarelli scored a little more than a minute later. Yzerman scored at 16:00 and Ciccarelli added an empty net goal in the final minute.

Detroit outshot the Ducks, 15-5, in the final period, one more measure of their superiority late in the game. Duck goaltender Ron Tugnutt made 26 saves, but didn’t impress Wilson.

“To be honest, Ron Tugnutt has played better games,” Wilson said. “A team like Detroit takes advantage of mistakes.”

The Red Wings turned three giveaways in the Ducks’ zone into goals and Troy Loney lost track of Kennedy, which led to a breakaway and the game-tying goal.

The Ducks were even with the Red Wings, 1-1, after the first period, then led, 3-2, after the second.

In their first two games against Detroit, the Ducks had trailed the Red Wings, 3-0, after the first period en route to a 7-2 loss on opening night and fell behind, 2-0, in a 5-2 defeat at Detroit on Dec. 14.

Monday night, defenseman Bobby Dollas’ power-play goal with less than 3 minutes left in the second period put the Ducks ahead, 3-2.

Another Duck defenseman, Bill Houlder, had made the score 2-2 at 14:36 of the second period. It was Houlder’s 10th goal of the season, third on the team behind Terry Yake’s 15 and Bob Corkum’s 13.

In the first period, Patrik Carnback scored his first goal since Nov. 26, giving the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 12:27. He swatted a backhanded pass from defenseman Alexei Kasatonov over the right shoulder of goalie Chris Osgood.

The lead didn’t last long.

Detroit’s Ray Sheppard pried the puck away from Kasatonov, who was in front of the crease, turned and fired a shot past Tugnutt at 14:40.

Duck Notes

Randy Ladouceur suffered a bruise on his right thigh after Detroit’s Darren McCarty checked him 1:33 into the game. Ladouceur, who has played in all 44 games this season, did not return to the game. . . . Joe Sacco suffered a bruised left hip in the first period, but returned in the second. . . . Steven King sat out his fourth consecutive game because of a sore back and a shoulder injury. He hasn’t played since Jan. 1 against Florida. . . . Sean Hill sat out his second game in a row because of a sprained left shoulder.