While Ryan Getzlaf battled flu symptoms and needed IV treatment last week, the Ducks slipped onto the playoff critical list.
Rested and reinvigorated, Getzlaf restored his team to good health Tuesday at the Honda Center. Their franchise center and captain of the not-too-distant future prolonged their season by engineering both goals in a 2-1 victory that set up a seventh game Thursday in Detroit to determine who will face the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference finals.
"It's going to be awesome. It's exciting. This is what we play for," said Getzlaf, who scored the Ducks' first goal, during a power play, and took the shot that was redirected by Corey Perry past Chris Osgood for their second goal, both during the second period. "We're excited to go into Detroit and try and get a win."
They wouldn't have had that chance if not for his stellar effort, a 38-save performance by a well-protected Jonas Hiller and a focused effort by the Ducks that fractured occasionally but never broke.
They gave up a power-play goal to Johan Franzen with 2:25 to play but wouldn't let the defending Stanley Cup champions pull even, ending the Red Wings' streak of clinching eight consecutive playoff series on the road.
"I think they were more desperate tonight than we were," Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. "We had too many turnovers that created more time in our zone than we wanted to."
Both teams enjoyed the game so much they stayed on the ice for some fisticuffs at the final horn, with the main bout pitting Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk against Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer.
The Red Wings emerged with two fighting majors while the Ducks got two (Perry and Niedermayer) as well as a misconduct against Perry and a game misconduct against Todd Marchant. Getzlaf also got two minor penalties.
Niedermayer said there was "a lot going on" in the waning seconds including some punches to his head that he decided to return in kind.
"Next thing you know my gloves were off," he said. "That doesn't happen too often. . . . When? A long time ago. You guys could probably tell that."
Faced with the prospect of playing their final game of the season, the Ducks responded with vigor and energy and -- gasp -- a respectable number of shots on goal. They were outshot, 39-28, to make it 12 for 12 in the playoffs, but they were as assertive and determined on Tuesday as they were fumble-fingered and unfocused in losing Games 4 and 5.
