Missed opportunity

Game 1 of the Western Conference finals for the Ducks was there for the taking.

So were the openers in playoff series against Minnesota and Vancouver, and the Ducks took those easily on their way to sending those teams out without much resistance. This time they stumbled.

The Ducks didn’t convert their many chances and the Detroit Red Wings did with some fortunate bounces for two power-play goals in a 2-1 win Friday night in front of another non-sellout crowd of 19,939 at Joe Louis Arena.

Tomas Holmstrom was credited with the game-winning goal at the 15:06 mark of the third period when Nicklas Lidstrom’s shot from the point bounced off the winger and trickled into the net despite Francois Beauchemin’s diving attempt to clear the puck before it crossed the line.

It was the kind of goal Holmstrom specializes in. He jostled with Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer and goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere as Lidstrom took the shot.

“I wanted to screen the goalie,” Holmstrom said. “If he can’t see the puck, it’s hard for him to save it.”

Giguere, who made 17 saves, wouldn’t say if Holmstrom interfered with him.

“It hit their guy Holmstrom in front of the net and I thought the puck would have just dropped in the middle of the zone but somehow it ended up behind me,” Giguere said. “They got a good bounce off that one, I guess.”

The Red Wings also got a goal by Henrik Zetterberg only 3:44 into the game when his bad-angle shot deflected off Beauchemin’s leg and in between Giguere’s pads.

“I think our puck movement was very good out there,” Lidstrom said. “We got kind of a lucky break when it went off of their defenseman’s skates.”

Both of their goals came off bad penalties taken by the Ducks, the NHL’s most penalized team in the regular season. Holmstrom’s goal came after Ryan Getzlaf was called for slashing Detroit defenseman Brett Lebda in retaliation.

“The only one I can be critical of is Getzlaf’s,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “It was like he got caught with his hands in a cookie jar.”

Getzlaf owned up to his mistake afterward.

“I’m sorry that I took a stupid penalty,” he said. “I let my teammates down.”

The Ducks got a tying goal by Chris Kunitz early in the third, but it was all they could get past Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek even though they had a 32-19 advantage in shots.

Hasek was good. But the loss could be pinned on the Ducks’ special teams.

The team that had killed off 53 of 56 disadvantages to lead all playoff teams could burn off only two of the four they faced. And the power play is now stuck in an 0-for-25 drought after failing on seven opportunities.

The Ducks failed on a five-on-three chance in the first period and couldn’t come up with the tying goal after pulling Giguere for a six-on-four advantage with 2:13 left.

“We did everything except score,” Getzlaf said. “We moved the puck around nicely and had lots of chances. We hit a few bars here and there and they got a couple of big saves out of Hasek.”

Now they trail in a series for the first time largely because they failed in their execution.

“We couldn’t buy a goal,” Ducks forward Teemu Selanne said. “I think we played a good game. We don’t have to change anything. Just get the [power play] going.”

It might have been a different game in the first period had Getzlaf’s blur of a slap shot been a few inches lower instead of hitting the crossbar.

“That’s how hockey goes,” winger Dustin Penner said. “Sometimes you deserve to win and it doesn’t go your way. Sometimes you deserve to lose and you end up winning.

” ... We have a lot of positives to build off of.”

*

eric.stephens@latimes.com

*

Western Conference finals

Detroit leads, 1-0 (* if necessary):

Game 1: at Detroit 2, Ducks 1

Game 2: at Detroit Sunday, 4:30 p.m.

Game 3: at Ducks Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Game 4: at Ducks Thursday, 6 p.m.

Game 5: at Detroit May 20, noon*

Game 6: at Ducks May 22, 6 p.m.*

Game 7: at Detroit May 24, 4:30 p.m.*

* TV: All games are on Versus except for Game 5, which is on Channel 4.