Ducks come up a little bit short

But then came the stroke they couldn't answer, the goal by Cleary, a grinder who outperformed some of his more talented teammates. Corey Perry's inability to get the puck in behind Detroit's defense led play to turn back up ice. Zetterberg, in the corner, saucered a pass to Cleary. He knocked it down and, Hiller claimed, pushed his pad so the puck squirted over the goal line.

"He didn't even try to hit the puck. He was going for my pad," Hiller said. "I'm down on the ice. He just kind of pushed me in."

Ryan Getzlaf said the play was "a tough call, not something [the officials] can go and review. It's a tough bounce but I'm not going to fault the officiating for anything." He added, "You can't take anything away from Detroit."

The Ducks couldn't take the Red Wings' title away, though not for lack of effort.

"I guess you always think you can do more but you look around the room and how some of these guys battled," Niedermayer said. "There are a lot of guys in here that worked extremely hard so I'm proud of a lot of guys in here, for sure."

Detroit built a 2-0 lead on a first-period power-play redirection by Jiri Hudler and a second-period breakaway by Darren Helm after a Selanne turnover.

The Ducks cut that to 2-1 at 14:50 of the second when Selanne tucked a loose puck in by the left post, but Detroit rebuilt its two-goal cushion at 16:23 when Mikael Samuelsson converted a pass from Hudler.

The Ducks responded with a power-play rebound goal by Perry at 17:12 before Ryan brought them even.

"I think they had a little more depth in the end with their offense and we were a little too much depending on Getzlaf's line," Selanne said.

Selanne has a year left on his deal but hedged about returning, saying he wants to see GM Bob Murray's upcoming moves. Murray will be busy: Scott and Rob Niedermayer can be unrestricted free agents, as can defenseman Francois Beauchemin and center Todd Marchant. Defenseman James Wisniewski is a restricted free agent.

"Good luck to Bob Murray this summer. He's got his work cut out for him," Getzlaf said. "He's fully qualified and he knows what he wants here and I'm excited to see what we bring next year."

Next year began Thursday.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com