Ducks Come Up Short, but Long on Hope : Hockey: They lose to Red Wings, 6-5, after trailing by four goals with 11 minutes left.

If the Mighty Ducks’ playoff hopes are as finished as the team seemed to be against the Detroit Red Wings Friday night, then maybe the Ducks still have some hope.

Burned by the Red Wings’ array of speed and talent for two periods, the Ducks trailed by four goals with 11 minutes left, then stormed back and nearly stunned the team with the best record in the NHL.

The game ended with Detroit winning, 6-5, but the Ducks had two terrific chances to tie with an extra attacker on the ice in the final seconds.

“Being as young as we are, we were naive enough to think we could come back from a four-goal deficit,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “Boy, we had a number of chances. We can’t hang our heads. We learned a lot tonight and grew immensely as a team.”

The game came very close to going into overtime, first on a Todd Krygier slap shot in the final seconds that Detroit goalie Chris Osgood stopped, and then on Mike Sillinger’s shot off the rebound, when the former Red Wing spun a forehand from the slot with Osgood out of position, only to have it sail over the net.

“He had four-by-six from 10 feet, but he put it over the net,” Wilson said. “He’s pretty devastated, I think. Maybe he’ll score that one in the playoffs and knock ‘em out.”

That’s Wilson, the positive thinker, planning on the 12th-place Ducks finishing eighth and meeting Detroit in the first round. His team is still only three points behind San Jose and Winnipeg, but two other teams stand between them and the playoffs.

“There’s nothing I want to do more than beat this hockey club, but it wasn’t a personal goal, it’s a team goal--we need the two points,” said Sillinger, who was making his first appearance in Detroit since being traded to the Ducks on April 4 along with defenseman Jason York for Stu Grimson, Mark Ferner and a draft pick.

York had three assists in the game, and Sillinger scored the third-period power-play goal that trimmed the lead to 6-3 and ignited the comeback.

Keith Primeau scored twice for Detroit, and Ray Sheppard scored his 29th goal of the season, tying the NHL lead. It was Sheppard’s 10th goal in seven games, and his seven goal-scoring streak ties Washington’s Peter Bondra for the longest in the league this season.

The Red Wings had been the best defensive team in the NHL, but reverted to their old form this week, allowing five goals in each of the last three games.

“The last three games, we’ve gotten carried away with ourselves,” Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said. “We got up 6-2, and it was like we still wanted to beat them up. . . . We were fortunate to win the game.”

The Red Wings’ failing was that after chasing goalie Guy Hebert 10:11 into the game by taking a 4-0 lead, they became a bit greedy. Two of the Ducks’ three goals in the third came on five-on-three power plays after penalties by Detroit. Grimson took a roughing penalty, Sergei Fedorov was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct and Bob Errey went off for tripping, all within two minutes.

“It’s funny how a team gets confident about their abilities,” the Ducks’ Todd Ewen said. “They know they’re in the playoffs for sure and they’re first overall. Sometimes selfishness plays a part. They decided to be the undisciplined team, and we were the disciplined team. Dino Ciccarelli took a stupid penalty and Keith Primeau was running around trying to intimidate people. It could have ended up costing them the game.”