For the first period after the Detroit Red Wings spent more than an hour honoring former captain Steve Yzerman by raising his number 19 to the Joe Louis Arena rafters, his team looked like they could use some of his veteran leadership. For the final 40 minutes of play, however, they took control of the game to pick up a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
The Red Wings managed only two shots in the first twenty minutes but managed to hold the NHL-leading Ducks to nine.
The two teams would come out blazing in the second, each scoring once in the first 3:24.
One minute into the period, just 5 seconds after the start of a Detroit power play, Mathieu Schneider opened the game’s scoring with a blast from the top of the left faceoff circle.
Only 2:24 later, Ryan Getzlaf tied the game back up with the Ducks skating on a 5-on-3.
With 3:09 remaining in the period, Henrik Zetterberg scored the eventual game-winner for Detroit off a pretty pass from Tomas Holmstrom. With the puck at the bottom of the right circle, Holmstrom spun to throw a behind-the-back pass to Zetterberg in the slot for a quick wrister past Anaheim netminder Ilja Bryzgalov.
The Red Wings and goalie Dominik Hasek turned back all seven Anaheim shots in the third to preserve the lead and earn the win.
In all, Hasek made 21 saves on 22 shots while Dryzgalov stopped 28 of 30 shots against.
Both teams went 1-for-5 on the power play.
The Red Wings will be back in action on Thursday night when they visit the San Jose Sharks to kick off a five-game road trip.
Detroit was without Pavel Datsyuk and Chris Chelios, each recovering from injury. Josh Langfeld was called up from Grand Rapids to play in Datsyuk’s place.
