Painful trip ends for Ducks

DETROIT — One word is all that’s needed to sum up the Ducks’ holiday trip.

Painful.

The injury woes that hit the Ducks last week are now having an effect in the loss column as the Detroit Red Wings sent them to their season-high third consecutive loss with a 2-1 victory Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena.

The defeat capped a stretch of four losses in five road games for the Ducks, who are in danger of losing the NHL’s best record.

“We’re going home licking our wounds,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We’re playing well but not well enough.”

The short-handed Ducks again came up empty because of a poor second period that provided the game’s decisive moments.

After a power-play goal by Red Wings defenseman Mathieu Schneider that opened the scoring, the Ducks tied it on Ryan Getzlaf’s goal while on a two-man advantage. After that, it was Detroit that carried the play.

Henrik Zetterberg provided the winning goal at 16:51 of the second when he banged in a backhand pass from Tomas Holmstrom as he was being defended by Aaron Rome, who made his NHL debut after being called up from Portland, Maine.

Afteward, Carlyle said the fault lay at those who didn’t check Zetterberg.

“We made a couple of fundamental errors in defensive zone coverage situations,” Carlyle said. “We had two guys go to the same man. You can’t do that and leave the guy open in front of the net. You have to have a better read.”

Rome is up only because of the injuries that have ravaged the roster. With Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin out, the Ducks suited up three rookie defensemen.

Veteran Sean O’Donnell was encouraged though.

“They scored only two goals,” O’Donnell said. “I thought they were pretty solid. [Kent] Huskins seems more and more comfortable every day. I thought Aaron Rome came in a played a real solid game.

“Every team goes through this at some point. It’s just obvious with us because it’s kind all happening at once and we’re in first place.”

The Ducks were already faced with a tall order. Detroit retired the number of its longtime captain Steve Yzerman in a ceremony that had both teams waiting for more than an hour.

When the puck finally dropped, it was Detroit that looked sluggish as it managed only two shots in the first period and had several turnovers on its own end. The Ducks, however, would eventually look back at a missed opportunity.

Andy McDonald was foiled by Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek on a golden chance off a turnover 20 seconds in and Chris Kunitz was foiled a short time later.

The Ducks were lucky not to have gone down a goal when Nicklas Lidstrom’s point shot hit the post.

Teemu Selanne missed wide late in the period after getting an nice setup pass from Ryan Getzlaf. Hasek also turned Selanne aside right before the first intermission.

“We came prepared,” Carlyle said. “We had lot of scoring opportunities in the first period.”

The Ducks did welcome back Ilya Bryzgalov, who made his first appearance after missing the last 12 games because of a strained groin.

Bryzgalov was solid in making 28 saves. It was his first full game since Nov. 17 against Chicago.

“I feel better and better every day,” he said. “It’s a good sign I finished this game.”

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