In tight series, Ducks lose Kunitz to surgery

The Ducks arrived home Monday still fired up from their dramatic Game 2 overtime victory over the Detroit Red Wings to even the Western Conference finals at a game apiece.

The feeling didn’t last long.

As they prepared for a pivotal Game 3 tonight at the Honda Center, the Ducks learned that winger Chris Kunitz will undergo surgery today to repair a broken bone in his right hand, effectively knocking him out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“Obviously it’s a tough pill to swallow,” Kunitz said by phone from his home. “The body can only handle so much. I don’t have much choice in the matter.”

Losing Kunitz, who had 25 goals and 35 assists in the regular season and was a strong physical presence on the ice, is a serious blow to the Pacific Division champions as they battle Detroit for the right to advance to the Cup finals.

The winner will take on the champions of the Eastern Conference, a series in which the Ottawa Senators on Monday night took a 3-0 lead over the Buffalo Sabres.

“He’s an important player on our team,” Ducks General Manager Brian Burke said of Kunitz. “He’s done a lot of things well. He scores goals, he hits, he helps his linemates. It’s not an insignificant loss.”

Kunitz was injured in the final minutes of Game 1 on Friday night when he tried to deflect a slap shot off the stick of Chris Pronger into the Red Wings’ net.

The 27-year-old winger will have the surgery performed by a hand specialist this morning at Kerlan-Jobe Clinic in Anaheim. Another specialist he consulted in Detroit on Sunday had recommended the procedure.

After consulting Monday with Ronald Glousman, the Ducks’ team physician, Kunitz said the initial timetable for recovery is four to six weeks. However, he also said he is holding out hope that he can return faster if the Ducks advance.

But that may be unlikely since the NHL has set June 11 as the latest possible date for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, exactly four weeks away.

The injury had forced Kunitz to sit out Game 2 on Sunday, although the exact nature of the problem was not revealed and there even were suggestions that he might be able to play in Game 3.

However, it was clear something was wrong because he had not practiced Saturday or taken part in Sunday’s morning skate.

“We weren’t sure if he wasn’t going to be able to play,” Burke said Monday. “If they know a guy has a bad hand, he’s an easy target out there.”

Kunitz, in only his second full season, said he knew the injury was serious because the resulting swelling made it virtually impossible to grip the top half of his stick.

“It’s a freak accident,” he said. “Nothing that you ever expect. Nobody thought it would become this bad.”

Kunitz had six points in 11 playoff games, including the Ducks’ only goal in Game 1 -- his first of the postseason.

To fill Kunitz’s critical role on the top line Sunday, Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle shuffled Todd Marchant, Dustin Penner and Brad May on the left side in between the two scoring lines.

That probably will be the plan again tonight.

“His complement to our group has been huge,” Carlyle said of Kunitz. “That’s not easy for one individual to come into your lineup and pick that up.”

The Ducks have absorbed their share of injuries this season, and Kunitz is only the latest.

They played without defensemen Chris Pronger, Francois Beauchemin and Scott Niedermayer for varying lengths of time along with Marchant and goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

“You hate to see a guy injured by friendly fire, but it’s a loss we have to overcome,” Burke said. “We expect the rest of the group to step up. This is what injuries do. Injuries open up opportunity for other players.”

The Ducks have played with vigor in this series, putting up 32 and 33 shots in Games 1 and 2 against Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek while dictating play in a lot of even-strength situations.

“Certainly five-on-five, we’ve been able to control the play and use our forecheck and our physical play to create opportunities,” Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said.

“We have some good goals off of some cycles and some plays with net presence. Hopefully that will continue.”

If there has been one major disappointment in the Ducks’ game, it continues to be the play of their special teams.

Even though the Ducks’ power-play drought extended to 28 in a row without a goal, Rob Niedermayer and Andy McDonald both scored Sunday night as advantages expired.

The bigger issue is the penalty-killing unit: The Red Wings have four power-play goals in 11 opportunities.

“Well, I don’t think I want to take a gun and shoot our specialty teams,” Carlyle said. “You guys might be writing it as drastic. It’s a 1-1 series. So, are there areas we’d like to improve on? Of course. Specialty teams are one of them.”

On the other hand, the Red Wings’ only goals have come either on the power play or short-handed, and it has Detroit Coach Mike Babcock concerned. They have gotten little outside of their top line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom.

“We haven’t spent enough time in their zone,” Babcock said. “To me, that’s not quick enough coming out of our zone, therefore not enough speed through the neutral zone, you’re not on top of their [defensemen].

“We’ve addressed that. Now we got to execute.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com