Given the result, it can be easy to suggest the Anaheim Ducks had an emotional letdown Friday night against the Detroit Red Wings, given they pulled off a dramatic third-period comeback to beat the Chicago Blackhawks in a battle of the top two teams in the Western Conference two days before.
The Ducks, also riding a 12-game point streak and with a chance to get within a point of the Blackhawks in the conference standings, fell flat by a score of 5-1 to the Red Wings.
The Wings’ Justin Abdelkader notched the hat trick.
Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau was asked if there was a letdown from his team. His response was recorded on the Ducks’ official Twitter account, seen below:
Bruce Boudreau asked if there is letdown potential after that Chicago game: "We're playing Detroit. We're not playing a bag of beans here."
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) March 22, 2013
Things started out well for the Ducks. Teemu Selanne opened the scoring just past the midway point of the first period, but it got progressively worse for Anaheim after that.
The Red Wings scored five unanswered goals.
“After the first goal they got, we were sort of dead in the water the rest of the game,” Boudreau told the Orange County Register.
“I thought the first 10 minutes, we were all over them. We weren’t very good the last 50 minutes.”
Good news for the Ducks: they face the Red Wings again, on home ice, Sunday.