WINGIN’ IT

Four years ago, Jean-Sebastien Giguere stood on his head in goal and brought the Detroit Red Wings to their knees.

A lot has changed for the Ducks since, but they would love a reprise.

The Red Wings, winners of 10 Stanley Cups and one of the NHL’s Original Six franchises, will try to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Giguere knows what lies ahead. He is one of only three players still with the team who were on the ice when the Ducks shocked the heavily favored Red Wings in a first-round series sweep.

It was, of course, the start of a playoff run that ended one victory shy of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Tonight, as Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against Detroit gets underway at Joe Louis Arena, the Ducks’ purpose will be the same as it was in 2003, but their status has changed. .

The days of being the underdog are gone.

“Back then we had nothing to lose,” Giguere said. “We went in there just kind of being loose and playing our game. It ended up being very successful for us.

“This year, it’s a different sort of mentality for us.”

These Ducks are not your merry bunch of overachievers. After getting stopped in this round a year ago by the Edmonton Oilers, the Ducks raised the stakes the moment they traded for Chris Pronger.

“I think it put a huge statement on our hockey club that we were very serious about our season and about taking the next step and becoming an elite club,” Coach Randy Carlyle said.

When this season began, expectations were never higher. To this point, the Ducks have ably shouldered the burden.

As part of an upstart Oilers team that eliminated the Red Wings and the Ducks last season, Pronger said there was one difference in these Ducks.

“You know, I think the biggest thing to compare the two from last year to this year is that we believe we should win,” Pronger said. “You don’t worry about what the media writes, what fans are thinking or what anybody outside of that locker room is thinking. It’s what you believe in that locker room and what you believe you can accomplish.”

Detroit, which last won the Cup in 2002, finished the regular season with two more wins and three more points in edging the Ducks for the top seeding in the West. But that hasn’t shaken the perception that the Ducks are the favorite in this series.

Anaheim has lost only two games and has given up two or fewer goals in every playoff game outside of a 4-1 loss to Minnesota in Game 4 of the opening round. The penalty killing has been near-perfect with 53 of 56 disadvantages erased without giving up a goal.

And Giguere has had numbers -- 1.28 goals-against average, .952 save percentage -- that are better than what he had in 2003 when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of those playoffs.

Pronger and Scott Niedermayer have been essential, but the bigger story has been the shutdown line of Samuel Pahlsson, Travis Moen and Rob Niedermayer that has throttled such scorers as Minnesota’s Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra and Vancouver’s Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

Next up for the trio: containing Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom. Datsyuk has a team-leading five goals and 11 points in this postseason. Zetterberg and Holmstrom have combined for six goals and six assists.

“The thing is just not giving them much time,” Niedermayer said. “You don’t want to be dumb about it like running out of position to get a hit. But I think it’s just getting on them and getting in on them quick. That’s the biggest thing.

“If you don’t give them much time, that takes away a lot of their skill and doesn’t give a lot of time for guys to get open.”

It means the Ducks will be physical, as they have been all year. And they aren’t about to change now.

“For us to be successful, we have to play our style of game,” Carlyle said.

Detroit, despite having to cut its payroll in half to fit the post-lockout salary cap, has remained successful because of defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, the firepower of Datsyuk and Zetterberg and the leadership of veterans such as Chris Chelios, Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby.

Last season, the Red Wings were criticized for being soft in falling to the eighth-seeded Oilers. Their coach, Mike Babcock, who was behind the Ducks’ bench in 2003, responded by making them tighter on defense and instilling a tougher attitude.

With pressure on them to avoid another early disappointment, Detroit showed a more resilient side in beating Calgary in the first round and rallying to eliminate San Jose in six games.

Draper said the addition of hard-nosed defenseman Danny Markov and the deadline acquisitions of forwards Todd Bertuzzi and Kyle Calder have given them more size to compete against physical teams. He also said Bertuzzi has been a presence, despite having only four points in 10 playoff games.

“I think we are a tougher team,” Draper said. “We made some changes, needed to make some changes after having early exits the last couple of years. I think that has been addressed.”

Pronger sees the change.

“They added a lot of grit at the deadline and certainly are playing a gritty game,” he said. They’re “not playing the prototypical Detroit style that you’ve seen over the last 10 or 15 years.”

Still, the Ducks have built themselves for this moment.

With three-time Cup winner Scott Niedermayer aboard and Giguere, Pronger and Teemu Selanne looking for their first, the conference finals are no longer enough. And, as it often has, the path to the Stanley Cup runs through Detroit.

Times staff writer Helene Elliott contributed to this report.

eric.stephens@latimes.com