The Detroit Red Wings and the Anaheim Ducks have played one of the toughest series in the NHL playoffs and after Sunday night's game at the Honda Center one team will be into the next round of the postseason and another team will be done for the year.
The Ducks had the advantage in Game 6, but after an overtime victory by the Red Wings in Detroit, the two will face off in a do or die Game 7 to advance to the next round out of the two-seven playoff matchup. Detroit has been close to having the series being a blowout, as they have won three of the four overtime games of the series, including the exciting Game 6 matchup to stay alive. The Ducks leading scorer for the series is Ryan Getzlaf with five points, while Pavel Datsyuk is leading the Red Wings with seven points and five assists.
Getzlaf has been clutch for the Ducks and captain Henrik Zetterberg has started to heat up at the right time for the Red Wings, who would be pulling off the biggest upset of the playoffs so far with a road victory on Sunday night. This is the fifth time that the Ducks have played a Game and the last time around it was also against the Red Wings, with Detroit winning that series and they will have to fight some history as they are just 2-7 in these games on the road. The Red Wings fought their way into the playoffs and made it as the eighth seed to keep their two decade plus playoff streak alive and now they may upset one of the best teams in the NHL.
The Ducks went 16-7-1 this past season at home while Detroit was 11-9-4 on the road and so far both goaltenders have been excellent, with Jonas Hiller and Jimmy Howard going head to head. Each goalie has three wins and three losses in the series and both have posted a minus 3.00 goals against average in the series and have been mostly even in special teams. Johan Franzen has been clutch for the Red Wings, while Datsyuk has been the top playmaker with seven points. Henrik Zetterberg finally broke through after shooting on goal 24 times in the series. Getzlaf has been the top scorer for the Ducks and the team will need him to come through on Sunday.
