RED WINGS TIE SERIES WITH ROUT OF DUCKS

After being held in check for the first three games of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Anaheim Ducks, the Detroit Red Wings got their offense going in Thursday night’s game four.  Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa each scored twice as Detroit earned a 6-3 blowout victory over the Ducks at the Honda Center to even the series at two games apiece.  It was the first game in the closely contested series that had been decided by more than one goal, and also the first time that the Red Wings had scored more than three goals against the defensive minded Ducks.

The Wings rewarded sports betting enthusiasts with a victory as -160 road favorites, with the score easily going OVER the posted total of 5’.  Detroit has been favored in all four games of the series, and ‘chalk eaters’ who have backed them throughout are in a -1.5 unit hole.  The O/U in the series also stands at 2-2.  For the playoffs, Detroit is 3-4-1 to the UNDER, while Anaheim has gone OVER in only three of their ten postseason games (4 UNDER, 3 push). 

Anaheim’s Corey Perry got the scoring started just :42 seconds into the opening period with his goal assisted by Chris Pronger giving the Ducks a 1-0 lead.  That would be their only lead of the game, and Johan Frantzen scored twice in the first period to give the Red Wings a 2-1 advantage heading into intermission.  Frantzen lit the lamp at 11:49 assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Jonathan Ericsson and again at 19:24 assisted by Niklas Kronwall. 

The Ducks’ Perry would net his second of the game to tie the score at 11:03 of the second period, but the Red Wings would pull away from there with Marian Hossa taking the star turn on offense.  Hossa bagged his first goal of the game at 16:02 assisted by Frantzen to give the Wings a 3-2 lead, and added another on the power play at 19:04 assisted by Nicklas Lidstrom and  Valtteri Filppula to make it 4-2 at the end of two periods.  Mikael Samuelsson would make it 5-2 Wings early in the third with his goal set up by Kirk Maltby.  Anaheim’s Scott Niedermayer would score on the power play midway through the final frame assisted by Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, but the Ducks could get no closer.  Henrik Zetterberg would add an empty net goal late in the game to produce the final 6-3 margin.

After the game, Detroit’s Frantzen suggested that the faster tempo was the key to victory:

"We got our goals a little bit easier, we played with high tempo. We need things like that to break down that goalie, so we did a great job tonight."

Losing Ducks’ goaltender Johan Hiller, who was yanked early in the third period after the 5^th Red Wings’ goal, didn’t get into the minutiae of the gameplay simply conceding:

"They just outplayed us.  It was probably our worst playoff game we have played so far."

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle agreed, suggested that the Ducks’ downward spiral began with a ‘soft’ goal allowed by Hiller early in the game:

"The first goal was a goal that should have never gone into the net. We weren't just good enough as a team and goaltending is part of the team and that's the bottom line. We weren't good enough."

The Red Wings have been installed as a hefty -240 home favorite for Saturday’s game five, with the total set at 5’ UN -120.  Game six will be back at Anaheim’s Honda Center home ice on Tuesday.  Should a game seven be necessary, it’ll be played at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena on Thursday night.