All Wings, no prayer

The so-called fans who cheered the sight of a woozy Tomas Holmstrom lying on the ice after he was slammed into the boards by Rob Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, or the Ducks' lack of perseverance and self-control when small doses of each might have turned the Western Conference finals in their favor.

The Ducks got what they deserved Tuesday in a 5-0 loss to the Red Wings. Their legs looked heavy, their energy fizzled after their early pressure went unrewarded and their composure fractured too easily.

Teemu Selanne was invisible -- again. He and his teammates used none of the speed, size and skill that are their strongest assets.

Worst of all, they didn't use their heads.

"We weren't disciplined at anything," center Ryan Getzlaf said. "We weren't disciplined at playing our system or anything else."

Detroit took a 2-1 series lead and regained home-ice advantage with a rout that emptied the Honda Center long before the final buzzer mercifully sounded. The Red Wings can also look forward to the possibility of Pronger being suspended by the NHL for his part in the tag-team slam of Holmstrom, even though Niedermayer paid the immediate price in the form of a five-minute boarding penalty and automatic game misconduct.

Any hit can be reviewed by the NHL regardless of whether a penalty was called. The league's crackdown this season against hits to the head makes it likely that the Pronger-Niedermayer crunch -- which occurred when the Ducks were trailing, 4-0, in the second period -- will be re-examined and that one or both will be banished for a game or two.

The Red Wings smartly declined to say anything incendiary. Players who recall what they did on the third shift of their second day of junior hockey couldn't remember what happened when the two Ducks sandwiched Holmstrom. They also wouldn't say whether a suspension was warranted.

"I have to look at the video," said Holmstrom, who had an egg-shaped bump on his right temple in addition to 13 stitches. "I think I had two guys on me. I fell into the boards and got hit again. I never see the guy come from behind."

Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said he "really couldn't see" the hit, which took place in the Ducks' zone. All he could be sure of, he said, was that "it looked like Niedermayer came from far out in the middle of the ice with a lot of speed when he hit him."