Legace Injured as Wings Fall to Ducks

The Detroit Red Wings lost the game and their goaltender Friday afternoon in Anaheim, falling to the Mighty Ducks, 3-2, in a game that Manny Legace left after the first period.

Legace was shaken up near the end of the first period, appearing to injure his leg while kicking at a puck. On a strange play, he was forced to make two saves when officials did not blow play dead while the Red Wings had possession of the puck in the Anaheim zone before the Ducks carried it back in to Detroit’s end.

Legace was tended to by trainers after play was finally stopped and finished the period before Chris Osgood took over between the pipes at the start of the second. The extent of Legace’s injury was not announced.

Legace had allowed the games first goal before the injury. With 4:40 left in the first, Legace stopped a shot by Anaheim rookie Dustin Penner from the right circle. He kicked it out to his right but Andy McDonald snuck in to bang it back into the net.

Detroit evened things up in the second, with Henrik Zetterberg scoring a power play goal just 2:49 into the period. Pavel Datsyuk faked around a defender to gain the Anaheim zone and sent a pass to Zetterberg at the right side of the slot. Zetterberg skated in on goal and sent a backhand shot off netminder Ilja Bryzgalov’s shoulder and into the net.

The Ducks regained the lead with a power play goal of their own at 9:26 of the third period. Ruslan Salei fired a shot from the blue line that Osgood kicked out. McDonald picked up the rebound and couldn’t get a shot off. The puck came to Selanne at the edge of the crease and he popped it past Osgood.

The Red Wings couldn’t get their offense going to get the tying goal and Anaheim added a shorthanded empty-net goal by Johnathan Hedstrom with 16 seconds remaining.

Legace stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced while Osgood made 17 saves on 18 shots and Bryzgalov stopped 28 of 29 shots agains.

The Red Wings went one-for-five on the power play. The Mighty Ducks scored on one of their three chances with the man-advantage.

Detroit will continue their West Coast road trip on Saturday, facing the Sharks in San Jose.