Christensen had the tying goal on his stick just over a minute later, one-on-one with Chris Osgood from about 15 feet out, but he shot into the goaltender's glove.
"We had a chance to go 2-2, then you never know when you're on the road," Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. "That's all we're trying to do -- get another chance -- and I don't think we did it."
The Ducks had an early power play in the third, when Corey Perry sold a borderline hooking call that was made on Dan Cleary at 3:50, but they took no shots and gave up a short-handed foray by Marian Hossa during that advantage.
"We didn't do very much with it," Carlyle said of that power play.
"I think that took any momentum we were building away from us."
From there on the Red Wings simply did what they wanted and the Ducks rarely put up much resistance. Detroit's persistence paid off at 16:52 when Darren Helm finished off a flurry in front of Hiller for a 3-1 lead. Zetterberg scored into an empty net with 51.1 seconds remaining to secure it.
"We weren't emotionally involved tonight. Not on a consistent basis," Carlyle said.
Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer credited the Red Wings for their proficiency but knew the Ducks had made them look even better by contrast.
"We didn't have pretty much everything you need to compete," he said, quietly simmering.
"We didn't play well positionally. We didn't play our game plan as well as we need to, and that's the result.
"They deserved to win. We didn't."
What now?
"No secret. It's pretty simple really," Niedermayer said, then caught himself.
"Simple to talk about," he added. "What matters is you need to go out and do it on the ice -- and that will be our focus, preparing to play a heck of a lot better."
Anything less than their best and they'll be on the wrong end of the traditional handshake line in what could be the Ducks finale for Niedermayer, who's in the last year of his contract.
Anything less than their best and they'll be cheating their fans and themselves.
"We have to look in the mirror, every individual," Selanne said. "We will be better, I promise."
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helene.elliott@latimes.com
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NHL playoffs
DETROIT AT DUCKS
GAME 6 -- TUESDAY
Red Wings lead series, 3-2;
7 p.m., Prime Ticket
