Red Wings’ Execution Shows Ducks Are Not So Mighty

This one was an easy call.

The scalding Detroit Red Wings, winners of 16 of 18, versus the not-so-Mighty Ducks, winless in 11 of 13. Superb goaltending against shaky. Speed and size against the injured and only recently mended. Rested against weary.

Score another one for predictability.

Final score: Red Wings 6, Ducks 1.

It was perhaps the rockiest home loss for the Ducks in, oh, 24 hours. Tuesday, the vastly inferior San Jose Sharks drilled the Ducks, 7-4. Wednesday, it was the Red Wings’ turn.

The difference was in the execution. Stylish and often brutish, the Red Wings never let the Ducks up, coming at them in waves. All of which seemed to delight the 5,000 or so red-clad folks, who seemed to forget they no longer live in Michigan.

Truth be told, this is probably a bandwagon worth jumping on.

What’s not to like? The sellout of 17,174 at The Pond got an eyeful of all the Red Wings’ weapons except for Sergei Fedorov, who missed the game with a sprained left wrist.

Imagine what it might have been like if Fedorov, who had a team-leading 14 goals and 36 points going into the game, had been on the ice?

When it was done, Keith Primeau stared in amazement at a questioner who dared wonder if winning ever becomes routine.

No way, he said. When you’ve lost the Stanley Cup finals in four games, as the Red Wings did last season, there’s only added fire in the belly.

“We’re still a little sour after our disappointment in the finals,” defenseman Bob Rouse said.

Primeau said it took about three weeks before any of the Red Wings could think of anything but their sweep at the hands of the New Jersey Devils.

“It’s a building block for us,” Primeau said.

Great, an enormously talented team is now on a mission. Look out, league.

The Red Wings made believers out of the Ducks, extending their stranglehold to 8-0-2 dating to the debacle on opening night--a 7-2 rout in the Ducks’ first game in 1993.

Wednesday seemed like business as usual.

Steve Yzerman and Vyacheslav Kozlov each scored twice. Primeau had a goal and an assist. And so it went.

“We had a lot of good [scoring] chances,” Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said, earning honors for understatement of the evening. “This was about as much offense as we’ve had all season.”

For the second night running, the Ducks fell behind, 3-0, after the first period. Quickly, it became 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, before Peter Douris swept in a rebound 9:02 into the third period.

That broke up Mike Vernon’s shutout bid, ending the only suspense left. In the end, Vernon stopped 32 of 33 shots, many in spectacular fashion. However, he was overshadowed by the relentless Red Wing attack on Guy Hebert.

“The talent level on this team is tremendous,” said Vernon, who combines with Chris Osgood to give the Red Wings a league-leading 2.25 goals-against average. “It’s a good hockey club with a lot of talent. Everybody’s contributing offensively and defensively and that’s why it’s working.”

Primeau put it this way: “If we don’t win it’s a great disappointment.”