The Detroit Red Wings beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 Sunday night to win their series and advance to face the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round.
Ducks vs. Red Wings Game 7 Recap: Detroit eliminates Anaheim
The No. 7 seed Detroit Red Wings have upset the No. 2 seed Anaheim Ducks in 7 games.
Jeff Gross
The Ducks were one of the league’s top regular-season teams this year, finishing third in the league with 66 points and winning the highly-competitive Pacific Division, but they couldn’t manage to beat the No. 7 Red Wings despite leading the series 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 as it progressed.
The Red Wings opened the scoring 1:49 into the first period, when captain Henrik Zetterberg picked up a rebound:
The Wings would add goals from Justin Abdelkader and Valtteri Filppula in the second period, and would protect their two-goal lead through the final 20 minutes. Emerson Etem would have the only goal for the Ducks until this power-play tally in the final minutes of the game went into the net off Jonathan Ericsson's skate:
The Ducks would press in the final minutes with the goalie pulled, but never managed to score the equalizer.
Here are the three big questions we were tracking in this game:
Can Detroit hold a lead if they get one?
Yeah, as it turns out, they can. After taking the lead two minutes into the game, the Wings never trailed afterwards.
Will goaltending be the difference?
Both goaltenders made a number of big saves in the game, but Jimmy Howard had the better night. The Red Wings scored three times on 32 shots on Jonas Hiller, while the Ducks only scored twice on their 33 shots.
Will there be overtime one more time?
The Ducks couldn't quite manage their customary late comeback this time, so there was no bonus hockey in Game 7.
The Red Wings will face the regular season's best team, their Central Division rivals the Chicago Blackhawks, in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. The other Western series will feature the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks.
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