Red Wings Enter Break with 2-1 Win over Ducks

The Detroit Red Wings completed their three-game West Coast road trip undefeated Wednesday night, holding off a comeback by the Anaheim Ducks to earn a 2-1 win in their last game before the All-Star Break.

Detroit stood up to punishing physical play from the Ducks early and scored the first goal to get out to an important lead.

Thirteen penalties had already been called before Brian Rafalski scored with 8:08 left in the first period, including a pair of fighting majors when Chris Pronger and Dan Cleary dropped the gloves.

Rafalski’s goal came with the Red Wings on a five-on-three. His blast from the top of the left circle was deflected by Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer past goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere and into the net.

Valtteri Filppula put the Red Wings up by a pair at 7:52 of the second period.

Francois Beauchemin broke his stick on a clearing attempt from the Anaheim zone. Filppula picked off the pass and was in alone on Beauchemin but waited for Tomas Kopecky to catch up, working the give-and-go with Kopecky to pull Giguere to one side of the net and put the puck in the open side.

The Ducks tried to mount a comeback in the third period, with Pronger scoring a power play goal on a blast from the point through a screen by former Red Wing Todd Bertuzzi at 8:05.

It wouldn’t be enough for Anaheim, as Dominik Hasek shut the door, including several key stops in the game’s final minutes.

Hasek finished the night with 24 saves on 25 shots. Giguere stopped 31 of 33 shots he faced.

Both teams went one-for-five on the power play.

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The Red Wings were without Henrik Zetterberg for the second-straight game… Dan Cleary left the game with swelling around the eye after his fight with Chris Pronger.