Mighty Ducks Head Home on Red Alert After 5-1 Drubbing

Now what? What do the Mighty Ducks try next?

It isn’t difficult to figure out what has gone wrong for the overmatched Ducks in the first two games of their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings.

Fixing it in time for Game 3 Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond is another matter.

The Ducks headed home Friday night trailing the best-of-seven series two games to none after a 5-1 thumping before a sellout crowd of 19,983 at Joe Louis Arena.

Since there’s no mercy rule in the NHL, the Ducks must press on and hope they regain the form that got them this far in the first place. They certainly haven’t played much worse this season than they did during a brutal first period Friday.

The aggressive, smooth-skating style of play that propelled the Ducks to their second winning record and playoff berth in their six-season existence was sadly lacking.

Detroit winger Brendan Shanahan ignited the rout by scoring two goals and assisting on a third in the first period. Doug Brown added a goal in the final minute of the period for a 4-0 lead.

Red Wing captain Steve Yzerman then scored his fourth of the playoffs midway through the second period.

Game over.

Unless there’s a radical change in the Ducks’ play in Game 3, this series will be just about history too.

“The start is going to be so important,” said Teemu Selanne, who scored the Ducks’ only goal-- on a power play at 9:11 of the final period. “We weren’t ready [Friday]. We’re not even close to being how good we can play. . . . Now it’s our turn to show our character and come out hard and have a big boost from our crowd.”

To be sure, the Red Wings were near the top of their game Friday. But the Ducks’ passive play certainly helped Detroit look good in front of another raucous crowd.

The Red Wings whistled five shots at goalie Guy Hebert before the Ducks managed to get one off against Chris Osgood. The Red Wings had the first six shots on net in Game 1, but the Ducks’ staged a brief rally and took a 1-0 lead.

The Ducks skated and hit as well as could be expected during their 5-3 loss in Game 1. But they looked lost and hardly touched a Red Wing en route to a miserable showing in the first period of Game 2.

It wasn’t a surprise that the Ducks trailed, 4-0, after 20 minutes. It wouldn’t have mattered if they had played the two-time defending champion Red Wings or the pitiful Tampa Bay Lightning.

Either way, the Ducks would have been hammered.

“I was surprised we got off to a slow start, but even more surprised that Detroit got off to a better start than the other night,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “There were lapses and mistakes, but a lot of those are caused by Detroit. Give them credit. We got dominated by a great hockey team, but we’ve got to be better.

“They played great, but we certainly didn’t do much to stop them.”

Detroit took the lead only a minute into the game, when Shanahan tapped a rebound from near the right goal post into the net. He scored his second of the game on a blistering slap shot from the left wing at 10:14, then set up Tomas Holmstrom’s goal at 13:43 by charging down the right wing.

On each play, Shanahan took advantage of a lapse by Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei. Shanahan beat Salei to a loose puck on the first goal, stripped it away from him in the neutral zone to set up the second and turned him this way and that on the third.

“Early in the game, he was one of the guys who made mistakes that cost us,” Hartsburg said of Salei, who was on the ice for all five Detroit goals. “He’s a young player we have to keep coaxing to get better. He has to get better Sunday.”

The news was just as grim at the offensive end for the Ducks, who didn’t get a quality scoring chance until Marty McInnis fed a pass from the left point to Fredrik Olausson near the right goal post at 11:02 of the second period.

But Osgood smothered Olausson’s shot, one of only a handful of challenging ones he faced. Selanne finally ended Osgood’s shutout bid with his second goal of the playoffs at 9:11 of the third period.

Perhaps the only other sign of life from the Ducks came from enforcer Stu Grimson, who mugged Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios behind the Red Wing net at 6:13 of the final period.

A brief scrum ensued as Grimson tangled with Chelios and Darren McCarty, but nothing further developed. Grimson received three roughing minors and Chelios and McCarty one each.

“We’re going to have to throw everything we can think of at them Sunday afternoon,” Hartsburg said. “I don’t think we competed hard enough. To a man, they [the Red Wings] compete. They know every one-on-one battle is the key to winning the hockey game. Certainly, we have to battle harder. You can’t expect to play Detroit or beat Detroit unless you pay the price.

“We have to pay a bigger price Sunday afternoon.”