Recap: Red Wings 2 - Ducks 1, Hope We Don't See Them In The Playoffs

Final Score: Ducks 1, Wings 2

First Period Recap: To borrow a word from Charles Barkley, this period was 'turrible'.

The recently-scratched Ben Lovejoy attempted to make his presence felt early, slamming the Wings' Dan Cleary into the glass. Francois Beauchemin trips Valtteri Filppula, and the Wings are on the power play. Naturally, this power play results in a goal by Duck Killer Cleary, as Cleary tips a Jakub Kindl shot from the point past Jonas Hiller.

Corey Perry gets around Nicklas Kronwall and in to Jimmy Howard's crease, but he can't get the puck past the Wings goalie. Kyle Palmieri attempts to one-time the puck, and it hits Brian Lashoff in the face (Lashoff is the same guy who got fresh with Teemu Selanne on Friday, so it doesn't matter). Then, Detroit scores again. An Ian White shot from the point stops in front of Hiller's crease and Drew Miller taps it in. The Ducks take a timeout to collect themselves.

Once play resumes, Jakub Kindl is called for interference (to the approval of the Ducks bench). Bobby Ryan and Beauchemin attempt to make something happen, but it results in an offsides when Sheldon Souray is unable to keep the puck in the zone. Beleskey is called for hooking three minutes later but the Ducks kill it off.

After the Ducks spent a little more time in the Detroit zone and the Red Wings ice the puck because of the pressure. Now Mike Babcock doesn't like what he sees and takes a timeout.

Play picks up again with Perry trying to steal the puck from Kindl. Instead of getting the puck, he goes knee-to-knee with Kindle and Perry's knee hyperextends awkwardly. Hunched over, Perry slowly skates to the bench. Luckily, he'll be just fine.

To close the period, Ryan Getzlaf gets a shot on goal that Howard easily stops.

Second Period Recap: This period began inauspiciously, with a giveaway that ends up on Pavel Datsyuk's stick. If Beauchemin hadn't taken the puck away, the score might have been 3-0. Beauch's partner Souray releases a couple of bombs from the point, but Howard blocks one and saves the other.

Toni Lydman is called for interference and the Ducks kill the penalty again.

The Ducks run with the momentum for a bit. Beauch picks off a misdirected pass, and shoots it at Howard, but the goalie gloves it. Kyle Palmieri channels his inner Dustin Byfuglien and attempts to crash the crease, but that's not successful either. Peter Holland takes the puck away, Lashoff takes it away from Holland and Holland gets the puck back. He shoots and it pings off the crossbar.

Matt Beleskey is called for roughing for a late hit on Ian Smith. Seconds later, the Ducks catch a break when Cleary is called for interference. Beleskey's penalty run out and the Ducks go on the power play. As he's been doing a lot lately, Captain Hulkzlaf takes over and scores on the power play. He skates into the right wing circle, and unleashes a wrist shot that goes inside the left post.

Cogliano and Steckel combined for a 2-on-1 at the end of the period, but no scoring occurs.

Third Period Recap: The Ducks looked more like themselves in the third as they threw everything they could at the net.

Emerson Etem speeds down the left wing and gets a shot off, but it clangs off the post. Howard catches a shot from Lovejoy. Bobby passes it to Getzy for an almost-goal, but Howard gloves it.

As Johan Franzen tries to get into the slot, he's called for tripping Teemu (possibly embellished by The Flash). It seems like Souray is going to tie the game with a slapper, but again, Howard's glove robs his opportunity. Even with the momentum on their side, it didn't look to be the Ducks night. Souray seemed to ice the puck but there is some controversy as to if it should have been icing at all. Luckily Getzlaf wins the draw, and Jonas goes to the bench as the puck went into Detroit's zone.

Then, the game completely unraveled.

Getzlaf is initially called for tripping on Filppula and he does not agree with the call. As Getzlaf smashed his stick and voiced his displeasure, he was given a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct on top of the tripping penalty plus a game misconduct. Getzy wasn't the only one not happy with the officiating. Perry is given a misconduct after slamming his stick into glass. Teemu is yelling at the officials for what seems like minutes until they give him a misconduct and game misconduct. All three players are sent to the showers.

Following the 44 minute total penalty parade and glass repair on the Ducks side of the rink, the Wings have a power play with 33 seconds left in the game, and Hiller is back in the net. Seconds later, he's back on the bench. The puck drops dead center between the circles and right to Cam Fowler. He shoots the puck and Howard narrowly knocks it away with his shoulder. Game ends 2-1, Detroit; giving the Ducks first back-to-back regulation loss of the season

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The Good: Our grit. Even when things looked grim, the Ducks continued to fight for the equalizer.

The Bad: Jimmy Howard. The Wings are not known for producing great goaltenders. Yet, every time we meet them, we make Howard look like Henrik Lundqvist. Howard is a good goalie, but I also think he's in our heads.

The Ugly: Discipline. Now, as Robby has shown, the refs are clearly biased/stuck in 2007. And the tripping call on Getzlaf was bogus. [Ed. Note: Jury is still out on the call. I thought it was correct. - JN] But knowing this, the Ducks - especially their leaders - need to show some composure. Had Perry and Selanne been on the ice, we could have scored the tying goal in regulation.

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3rd Icehole: The refs.

2nd Icehole: The refs.

1st Icehole: The refs.

Next Game: Monday, March 25 at 7pm vs San Jose