DUCKS NIP RED WINGS TO FORCE GAME SEVEN

The Anaheim Ducks used a pair of second period goals and another outstanding effort by goalie Jonas Hiller to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on their Honda Center home ice Tuesday night.  The Anaheim victory tied the best of seven Western Conference semifinal series at three games apiece, forcing a decisive game seven on Thursday night at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.  The winner of this series will advance to meet the Chicago Blackhawks to determine the West’s representative in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Detroit had been installed as -170 road favorites, giving Ducks backers another nice payday.  The Red Wings have been favored in all six games of the series, meaning that backing the underdog Ducks throughout has resulted in a profit of just under 1.5 units despite splitting wins and losses.  The combined three goals scored put the game safely UNDER the posted 5.5 total, and the six games have now been equally split with three UNDER and three OVER. 

After a scoreless first period, Anaheim got on the board when Ryan Getzlaf scored his fourth goal of the playoffs on the power play at 2:21 of the second with Corey Perry and Scott Neidermeyer assisting.  Perry would do the honors himself later in the period, scoring his 7^th of the playoffs at 17:35 assisted by Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan.  Despite mounting an 18 shot onslaught against Ducks’ goalie Hiller in the final period, the Red Wings would only get one goal when Johan Franzen lit the lamp on the power play set up by Jiri Hudler and Henrick Zetterberg.  Hiller would preserve the victory and his 38 save performance would earn him the game’s ‘first star’ and some backhanded praise from the Red Wings’ Zetterberg:

"It was a close game and I think we competed. We tried to get pucks into the net and be there for second chances. Unfortunately we couldn't get more than one puck behind him. "

Anaheim’s Getzlaf said that his team was unhappy with their effort in a 4-1 game 5 loss and responded admirably:

"Not a lot had to be said, we have enough guys in here who have been there before. It was unacceptable the way we played last game. We were excited about tonight."

Added winning goaltender Hiller:

"I think everybody stepped up and played hard and we deserved to win and go on to Game 7. It was a tough fight, 60 minutes, a close game again, and emotions were unloading at the end. We have to play with emotions to have a chance to win."

The Red Wings are -240 home favorites in game seven.  Detroit is 11-7 all time in game seven situations, but has gone 3-3 at home in that spot since 1991.  Anaheim, meanwhile, is 2-1 in the short history of the franchise in game sevens.  Seven of the ten meetings between the two teams this season have been decided by one goal, making Anaheim +1.5 -130 on the puck line an interesting proposition.  The total for game seven has been set at 5.5 UNDER -140.