Ducks lose 12th straight game after Red Wings rally in third

DETROIT --The Anaheim Ducks lost their 12th straight game, 3-1 to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday.

It is the longest losing streak in Ducks history. They are 0-8-4 since defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 17.
"It's like 'Oh my god, how can this happen again?' But it happened," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "The guys are giving everything they've got and I can see the frustration. We're making too many mental mistakes."
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Red Wings highlights]
Rickard Rakell scored, and John Gibson made 22 saves for Anaheim (19-19-9), which led entering the third period for the fourth consecutive game.
"This is really tough to take," Ducks defenseman Jake Dotchin said. "We're working hard and we're playing well for two periods, and then everything is blowing up in the third."
Anthony Mantha, Gustav Nyquist and Darren Helm scored, and Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for Detroit (18-23-7), which won its second game in a row after losing 13 of its previous 15 (2-10-3).
"Beating [the Minnesota Wild] in the last game wasn't going to mean anything if we didn't go out and win another one," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "We've lost a ton of these games, and we need to start winning a few of them."

Danny DeKeyser had two assists in his return after missing 19 games with a wrist injury.
"I was just trying to keep everything simple," DeKeyser said. "Just make the easy plays."
Brandon Montour nearly gave the Ducks the lead at 4:00 of the second period, but the puck hit off the crossbar.
Rakell made it 1-0 with a power-play goal at 11:03 of the second when Nick Ritchie's shot from the slot redirected in off his left shin.
Detroit's big third period came after Thomas Vanek gave the team a speech during the second intermission.
"I don't think it was a big deal," Vanek said. "I just told the guys that we need to stop losing so many games even when we play pretty well. It was a 1-0 game and we needed to go out and get two points."

Mantha tied it 1-1 at 5:25 of the third period on a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Andreas Athanasiou shorty after a Ducks power play ended.
"Mantha and Athanasiou were doing some good things, and I wanted to give them more ice time, so I put them with [Dylan Larkin]," Blashill said. "That can work well after a [penalty kill] because the other team usually has had their top players on the power play."
Nyquist gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead at 15:44 with a redirection off DeKeyser's initial shot, and Helm extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:27.
"I don't even know what to say at this point," Rakell said. "We can't just play for overtime as soon as a team ties the game for us, but it feels like we start pushing and the other team just starts scoring more goals."
The Ducks finished the game with 10 forwards after Jakob Silfverberg (first period) and Ryan Kesler (second period) each left the game with a lower-body injury.
"Those are two players that you are going to miss, especially in the third period," Carlyle said. "It's really hard when you don't have enough healthy bodies in the lineup."

They said it

"Right now, we don't have the confidence to try to beat the guy we're playing against, and that's how you create scoring chances. We're playing from the outside, which makes us easy to defend, and we're just waiting for mistakes." -- Ducks forward Rickard Rakell
"Thomas [Vanek] is a veteran who has a lot of respect in our room because he's a veteran who has played a lot of great hockey in this League, and because he cares so much about winning. When he speaks up, it is going to carry a lot of weight." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on forward Thomas Vanek addressing the team after the second period

Need to know

Carlyle did not have an update on the status of Silfverberg and Kesler. … The Red Wings did not have a power play. … Nyquist has 40 points (11 goals, 29 assists) in 43 games this season, tying his total in 82 games last season. ... Devin Shore had four hits in 18:48 of ice time in his debut for the Ducks. He was acquired in a trade with the Dallas Stars for forward Andrew Cogliano on Monday.

What's next

Ducks:At the Minnesota Wild on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Red Wings: At the Calgary Flames on Friday (9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, SNW, FS-D+, NHL.TV)