By TED KULFAN
The Detroit News
March 3, 2011
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Red Wings' magic on the road finally disappeared.
The Anaheim Ducks rallied to defeat the Wings, 2-1, Wednesday at the Honda Center, ending the Wings' 6-game road win streak.
Bobby Ryan scored on a penalty shot, after Ruslan Salei was whistled for hooking Ryan down on a breakaway at 2:50 of overtime, beating Jimmy Howard cleanly high.
However, the Wings felt Ryan fell on his own and may have embellished the call a little bit.
"It was a bad call, he knows it," Howard said of the referee. "He fell on his own and tripped. But things happen out there fast and maybe (the referees) saw it differently. It's unfortunate the call was made."
Salei was upset Ryan got behind him for a breakaway. But the call bothered Salei, too.
"Obviously I wasn't happy about it," said Salei, who added referees are looking to make calls in those kinds of situations. Was I surprised? Not really."
The penalty shot hurt, but just as much was the Wings' ineffectiveness on the power play.
Pavel Datsyuk scored the Wings' lone goal on the power play. But otherwise, they failed on eight other power-play chances, including a two-man advantage for 1:33 late in the first period.
The Wings also were on a power play that extended for almost 90 seconds into overtime, but again, didn't take advantage.
"The game was set up for us to get a win and we didn't," coach Mike Babcock said.
Ducks forward Jason Blake tied the score early in the third period. Blake scored his 12th goal at 1:54, beating Howard from the top of the slot. Teemu Selanne left a drop pass for Blake in the high slot, and using Salei as a screen, fired a low shot past Howard.
To that point, the Wings appeared headed to another hard-fought road victory.
Datsyuk's power-play goal, his 20th, at 5:10 of the second period, gave the Wings a 1-0 lead. Datsyuk was in the corner when he banked a shot off the right leg of Ducks goalie Dan Ellis and into the net.
"Just shoot," said Datsyuk of what his plan was. "We decided to do that before the game, to shoot and (get) rebounds.
"It was a tough game. Anaheim plays tough. We didn't use our power play and that cost us a point."
It was Datsyuk's third consecutive game with a goal and his 13th point (8 goals, 5 assists) in the 12 games since he returned from a broken right hand.
The Wings (39-18-7, 85 points) travel to San Jose for the fourth game on this five-game trip Thursday. But there was a feeling in the locker room they left a point slip away because of a sputtering power play.
"That's why we lost the game, no doubt about it," Niklas Kronwall said. "Howie came up with some big saves, but we don't feel good about our power play tonight."
