Ducks defeat Red Wings, tighten race in Pacific Division

ANAHEIM -- The Anaheim Ducks tightened the race in the Pacific Division with a 4-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Honda Center on Friday.
The Ducks (36-24-12) are tied with the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific and with the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars for the two wild cards into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. All three teams hold a tiebreaker over Anaheim; Los Angeles and Colorado each has played one fewer game, and Dallas has more regulation and overtime wins (34-32).

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Nick Ritchie, Derek Grant, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler scored, Jakob Silfverberg had two assists and John Gibson made 28 saves for the Ducks, who have won two in a row after a three-game losing streak.
"We know the pressure that's upon us," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "We don't want to focus necessarily on what everybody else is doing. Just focus on what we can control and make sure we're ready game in, game out."
Mike Green and Gustav Nyquist scored, and Jimmy Howard made 32 saves for Detroit (26-34-11), which has lost nine in a row (0-8-1) for the first time since Feb. 8-28, 1986.

"We need to figure out something real quick," Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha said. "It's embarrassing to lose that much. We need to start playing a good game and having pride in playing."
Perry gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead at 16:42 of the second period.
Rickard Rakell shot into traffic and the rebound came to Ryan Getzlaf, who made a no-look, backhand pass to Perry coming around the back of the net, and he tapped the puck across the goal line.
Nyquist tied it at 2-2 at 7:10 of the second period.
Henrik Zetterberg partially whiffed on a pass from behind the net, but it still got to Justin Abdelkader, who made another short pass to Nyquist skating down the slot. He beat Gibson for his 19th goal of the season.
"These are tough games when you're playing a hockey club that's playing loose and free," Carlyle said.
Anaheim went ahead 2-1 at 2:48 of the second when Grant shot a rebound into Howard's stomach, but his upper body was across the goal line after he'd been knocked over by teammate Jonathan Ericsson.
"We had issues in our own end," Zetterberg said. "When we are in our own end, we try and do the right things, but it gets hard for us sometimes."
Kesler backhanded his own rebound high in the net to make it 4-2 at 5:04 of the third period. All four lines contributed a goal for Anaheim.
"When we're engaged to that level, we're a very dangerous team," Carlyle said.
Ritchie gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 6:02 of the first period.

Adam Henrique won a race to the puck on long pass that ended up behind the Detroit net. He sent a pass to Ondrej Kase, who found Ritchie coming down the slot, and he shot into the left side of the net.
"It was just a simple play," Ritchie said. "We got a forecheck and went side to side to get the defensemen turning their heads. Throw it to a guy going to the net."
Green tied it 1-1 at 17:14. Gibson made a left-pad save on a shot by forward Dylan Larkin. The rebound came right back to Larkin, and he passed it to Green on his left, who scored before Gibson could slide over.

Goal of the game

Perry's goal at 16:42 of the second period.

Saves of the game

Gibson stopping Luke Glendening and Larkin at 1:31 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Kesler's goal at 5:04 of the third period.

They said it

"The only thing we can do is focus on each game and try to win that night. It doesn't really matter who we are playing, but we don't come here that often anymore, so it's fun for us to come here and play." -- Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg
"It's huge when we can get emotionally involved early. These games mean a lot. There's no reason why we shouldn't be emotionally involved from the start. Tonight was pretty easy to get emotional." -- Ducks forward Ryan Kesler

Need to know

The Red Wings have allowed four goals or more in seven of eight games. … Nyquist has scored in three straight games. ... The Ducks went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and have killed 31 consecutive penalties at home. … Getzlaf has 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) in the past eight games. … Rakell has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in the past nine games. … Perry has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the past nine games. … Gibson is 10-3-1 since the All-Star break, with a League-leading 1.84 goals-against average and .947 save percentage in that span. … Grant has 10 goals in 56 games this season after not scoring in his first 86 NHL games from 2012-17.

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What's next

Red Wings: At the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Ducks: Host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday (9 p.m. ET; FS-W, MSG+, NHL.TV)