Penguins can learn a lot from Ducks

The Penguins have also copied some of the Ducks' mistakes, primarily in taking unnecessary trips to the penalty box. Pittsburgh had more penalties and penalty minutes in four of the first five games, allowing Detroit to refine a power play that's now four for 19 (21%). The Ducks took fewer penalties than the Red Wings only once and -- surprise! -- won that game.

Again like the Ducks, the Penguins have too often allowed their emotions to rule them. Malkin should have been suspended for instigating a fight in the final minute of Game 2, Crosby showed poor leadership in slashing Henrik Zetterberg in the second period of Game 5, and hostilities in that game led to three misconduct penalties.

"What happened at the end of the game seemed to take them right out of their element," Carlyle said. "That's something you've got to turn the page on and come back at. Get back to basics. Do the things you do best."

For the Ducks, that meant riding a talented and mobile defense that could stymie opponents and initiate plays.

"I think we had two very competitive teams that neither team would break," Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said of that series.

"I thought the matchups were great too, with some of the lines we had offensively and the strong defense that they had."

It turned in his team's favor because of "the depth we had on our team," he said.

That's again Detroit's big edge. Malkin has a team-leading two goals and seven points in the finals but the only other Penguin with two goals is Maxime Talbot, and one was an empty-netter.

The Ducks had one strong line with Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, but they got little from their other lines.

No one connected with the Penguins has asked Carlyle for advice but he knows what he would say if he were coaching them tonight.

"What you want to do is play to your strengths. Always show the respect necessary, but always do the things that you do and do them to the highest level you can do them," he said.

"You can't forget that your team performed very well to get you where you're at. Show confidence in your group and say, 'Hey, we've done some good things and we're in a situation now where we need to win this hockey game. We want to force a seventh game. We want to give ourselves a chance. We've just got to play our game.' "

That philosophy got him a distinction that's likely to last beyond this spring.

"We were happy about the success we had and the competitiveness we had but we're not satisfied," he said. "We feel we can play the game at a pretty high level but we played a pretty good hockey club. They beat us. We took our hat off but we're about preparing our team now to challenge them."

In the last few seasons, they've been the only team that could.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com