"We missed an opportunity to gain points and help solidify our position," said head coach Randy Carlyle. "That's the most important thing. We can't worry about what other teams are doing right now. We've got to get our own fair share of points. Tonight we missed an opportunity."
We will never know how the game would have turned out had Jakob Silfverberg scored into a wide-open net early in the first period in what was, at the time, a scoreless contest. Had his shot gone in - it caromed off the far-side post - the Ducks would have taken an early 1-0 lead in an opening period they clearly dominated. Instead, they found themselves down a goal in the first period and 2-0 before Henrique's tally. Nevertheless, it wasn't like they didn't have opportunities to claw back into the game. They had four power plays, including two in the third period. They came up empty on all four.
John Gibson made 14 saves in the loss, the opener of this crucial four-game road trip.
"It's frustrating," said Corey Perry. "You have a chance to go ahead early in the game and it gets called back. You have to keep playing. That second period, we had a letdown. In the third, we came on a little more, but you have to put 60 minutes together each and every night."
Dylan Larkin and Frans Nielsen scored for the Red Wings, who improved to 23-23-9 (55 points), while Jimmy Howard won for the 16th time this season.
The Red Wings opened the scoring when Larkin intercepted Kevin Bieksa's attempted clearing pass right in the slot for his ninth goal and team-leading 43rd point of the season. The goal came at the 13:37 mark of the opening frame. Shots were 14-5 in favor of the Ducks after 20 minutes of play.
"We weren't sharp with the puck and we needed to go upstairs more," said Carlyle. "We put pucks into his feet. The puck was bouncing away from us. You can't play that way. Two turnovers in the game gave them goals. Those are very easily correctable."
Nielsen gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead late in the second period when he buried a loose puck that was kicked out into the high slot. The veteran center hammered the puck for his 13th goal of the season with 4:23 left in the middle frame. It was Detroit's ninth shot of the game compared to 20 for Anaheim at the time.
Henrique's goal with under four minutes remaining ended Detroit's shutout bid and cut the deficit to a goal, but a penalty assessed to Bieksa with 2:24 left in regulation negated a full-fledged comeback attempt for Anaheim.
