Red Wings Outlast the Ducks : Hockey: After taking a big lead early, Detroit has to fight to come away with a 6-5 victory.

If the Mighty Ducks’ playoff hopes are as done for as the Ducks were against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday . . . then the Ducks aren’t done for yet.

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

Detroit wound up winning, 6-5, but the Ducks had two terrific chances to tie with the extra attacker 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 to 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, coming from the slot with Osgood out of position. But that shot sailed over the net.

“He had four-by-six from 10 feet, but he put it over the net,” Duck Coach Ron 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 coming back to Detroit for the first time since being traded to Anaheim 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, which was fueled by two goals with two-man advantages.

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

Detroit has been the best defensive team in the NHL this season, but the Red Wings have reverted to their old form this week, giving up 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.”

After chasing goalie Guy Hebert only 10:11 into the game by taking a 4-0 lead, the Red Wings got a little greedy. Two of the Ducks’ three goals in the third came on two-man advantages created by Detroit’s undisciplined penalties. 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,” said the Ducks’ Todd Ewen. “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.”

Ewen nearly went toe-to-toe to Grimson, but they stopped short as they tangled against the boards.

“I like Stu immensely. That’s what it was, a friendly hug,” Ewen said. “He said to me, Are we going or what?’ He dropped the gloves. I said I couldn’t (because of a hand injury and potential NHL discipline).”

Grimson is a Red Wing now, but he still knew what to expect from the Ducks.

“You never count a team like that out,” he said. “At 6-2 they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. They’re battling for the playoffs and they’re going to play their guts out.”