Ducks use a strong will to beat Detroit

Sheer survival is what the Ducks are reduced to without the NHL’s top scoring defenseman and a goaltender that leads the league in victories.

It took that instinct Sunday night to help the Ducks get past a monumental collapse that occurred 48 hours earlier.

The Ducks ended a four-game losing streak with a tiebreaking score by newcomer Bjorn Melin in a three-goal second period and an outstanding effort by backup goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov in a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at the Honda Center.

A strong sense of relief pervaded the Ducks’ dressing room as they ended their season-worst skid and improved their lead in the Pacific Division to eight points over idle San Jose.

It also expunged the bad taste of Friday’s 4-3 loss to Columbus -- giving up a 3-1 lead in the last 10 minutes -- that necessitated a team meeting Saturday.

“The only way we were going to be able to prevent what happened Friday from continuing on was we were going to have to have 20 guys give us their best 60 minutes,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “It couldn’t be 15 guys, it couldn’t be 19 guys. It had to be 20 guys.

“Not focus on the negative spiral that we’ve been in. Focus on how we were going to get out of it and how we’re going to do it collectively.”

Bryzgalov was one of many who didn’t escape the criticism that followed the stinging defeat. The second-year goalie responded by outplaying Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek in winning his first game since Nov. 3.

Several of his 33 saves were on point-blank opportunities, including breakaway chances by Henrik Zetterberg, Josh Langfeld and Brett Lebda. Bryzgalov stopped 16 of 17 shots in the third period, including a decisive save on Pavel Datsyuk with 1 minute 25 seconds remaining.

There were several moments when Bryzgalov was caught out of position, but all that got past him were power-play goals by Mikael Samuelsson and Tomas Holmstrom.

“You know what? It was a good game,” Bryzgalov said. “A really good game.”

The last two weeks have been nightmarish for the team that has a league-leading 64 points. The Ducks are still playing with a patchwork defense because Chris Pronger and his 40 points are out along with Francois Beauchemin, who averages 24 minutes.

Center Todd Marchant is recovering from a strained stomach muscle and will join the Ducks on their two-game trip, but goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere is still not close to returning because of a groin problem. Bryzgalov’s performance was all the more important.

Carlyle also shuffled his deck and came up with a winning hand.

Melin was scratched Friday after being called up from Portland. But the left wing was inserted on the top line with Andy McDonald and Teemu Selanne for his first NHL game and Chris Kunitz was slotted on a line alongside Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.

Both maneuvers paid off in goals during the second period.

The Ducks ended a 1-1 tie at 10:36 as they cashed in a turnover by Robert Lang.

Selanne picked off Lang’s pass outside the Detroit blue line and dropped a pass to Melin, who tried to shoot a pass across the ice to a crashing McDonald.

Melin’s pass instead was deflected into the net by a diving Lebda before McDonald could get his stick on it.

“Teemu got the puck in the zone and gave me a real nice pass,” said Melin, who played the last seven years in his native Sweden.

“I saw Andy go to the net and tried to get it to him but I think it hit his stick instead.”

Two minutes later, Kunitz got the puck to a rushing Getzlaf on a counterattack and the big second-year center whistled a slap shot from above the right circle past Hasek for his 17th goal.

eric.stephens@latimes.com