Missed opportunity

Sweat and water ran down Dominik Hasek’s face in small rivers, dripping onto the ice in front of him.

The Ducks swarmed around the Detroit goaltender during a six-on-four manpower advantage they hoped would produce the tying goal in the opening game of the Western Conference finals. The crowd roared. The tension escalated.

Hasek reveled in every sweaty, suspenseful second.

“It was two, three minutes without a whistle,” he said. “They had the power play and I even lost my stick. I was a little bit tired, maybe, but I knew if I stop the puck we win the game, and that’s what happened.

“I love these games, when the game is on the edge and I make the save. It was a very exciting time for me.”

And a successful one.

At 42, Hasek has more gray hair than he did when he led the Czech Republic to a surprising gold medal at the 1998 Olympics and when he steered the Red Wings to a Stanley Cup title in 2002. But this much has not changed:

The tighter the game, the more skillful he is at reducing a complicated job to its basics.

You see the puck, you stop it.

You give up one fewer goal than the goalie at the other end of the ice, and you win the game.

Hasek stopped 31 shots in Detroit’s 2-1 victory Friday, standing firm against a final push by the Ducks that exhausted not only Hasek but the Red Wings’ penalty killers. He had been equally stalwart earlier in the third period during one of the few times the Ducks applied sustained pressure, stopping a rebound attempt by Dustin Penner with his elbow.

“Good save by him,” Penner said. “That’s why he’s won four or five Vezinas.”

Actually, Hasek is a six-time winner of the Vezina trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top goaltender. He looked the part Friday, letting anxiety roll off his shoulders like another bead of water.

He made it look easy.

It wasn’t.

“The last four minutes they threw everything what they had,” he said. “Probably in the playoffs, it was my busiest game.”

His defense was solid in front of him, limiting the Ducks’ chances during seven power plays and allowing few rebounds to fall onto the Ducks’ sticks. But it was Hasek, the last line of defense, who withstood the test most convincingly.

“It gives the team confidence when you can win games like this,” Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. “I think Dom steps up and plays even better when the pressure is on.”

Like the greatest of athletes, Hasek isn’t suffocated by pressure. He welcomes it, seeing the puck more clearly and standing up to be counted at moments that might drive others to their knees.

He also leaves others to draw conclusions and interpret the results as they will.

Asked if he is playing as well as he ever has, he smiled and shrugged. “It was a great game, that’s all I can say,” he said, still damp with perspiration as he sat in front of his stall in the Red Wings’ locker room.

“I always say I did good job in last two rounds and in this game, but it’s over for me and Sunday’s game is most important game for me.”

Asked if it had been vital for his injury-depleted team to win the first game and defend its home-ice advantage against the second-seeded Ducks, Hasek wisely resisted being drawn into a sweeping assessment.

“Of course you want to be up 1-0 and not down 1-0,” he said. “I can say it’s a very important win.

“But from what I see tonight they were a better team than Calgary and a better team than San Jose. So we have to play even better the next game if we want to win. They are the best team we have played to this point.”

Hasek was beaten only once, by Chris Kunitz, 95 seconds into the third period. Balancing on one leg in the left faceoff circle, Kunitz took a pass from Ryan Getzlaf and rifled a shot past Hasek. The goalie had only praise for the marksman.

“It was a quick play,” he said. “Their forward, he shot, almost like a one-timer, a wrist shot. Maybe you can make the save, but on the other hand it was a great shot, right about the pad. You have to give credit to him.”

Ultimately, the credit goes to Hasek and the Red Wings. They regained the lead at 15:06, when a power-play shot by Lidstrom bounced off teammate Tomas Holmstrom and somehow rolled into the net, and they protected it well.

“He’s going to make the first stop. You just have to be there to help him on rebounds and second and third chances,” Lidstrom said.

“We are very confident with having Dom back there. We know he’s one of the best in the league at what he’s doing.”

Hasek wasn’t acrobatic, but he didn’t have to be acrobatic. He was efficient and calm in a contentious game, never allowing himself to be distracted by players jostling for position in front of his crease.

“They created lots of traffic in front of me,” Hasek said. “It’s the way things are in the playoffs. I pay attention to the puck and stopping the puck. It’s what I do.”

He did it exceptionally well on Friday. It’s as simple as that.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.