Tonight, the Detroit Red Wings head to Anaheim to take on the Ducks in Game Six of the Western Conference Finals. Down three games to two in the series, the veteran Wings are hoping to stave off elimination. They can certainly take some solace in the fact that they’ve outplayed their opponents through much of this series, leading to the reasonable conclusion that they have what it takes to defeat the Ducks in Games 6 and 7. But unfortunately for the Wings, there are some clear signs that the tide has turned in Anaheim’s favor for good.

Through the first three games of the series, Anaheim netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere struggled mightily, surrendering eight goals while posting an atrocious .864 save percentage. But Giguere’s play improved dramatically in Games 4 and 5, during which he surrendered only four goals while stopping nearly 95% of the shots he faced. In Game 5 in particular, “Jiggy” was absolutely sensational, stopping 36 of 37 shots to keep the Ducks the game.

When Giguere’s at his best — as he was in winning the Conn Smythe Trophy while backstopping the Ducks to Game Seven of the 2003 Cup Finals — he is nearly impossible to beat. Though he isn’t the most athletic of netminders, Giguere is one of the NHL’s best positional goalies, nearly always square to the shooter and not prone to surrendering the big rebounds that often lead directly to goals-against.

So, although the Red Wings were the better team for much of both games (and for a meaningful majority of the series in total), it’s the Ducks who hold a commanding lead, with Giguere again emerging as a dominant difference-maker.

But of course, red-hot goaltending is not enough to guarantee success by itself, not in today’s paritydriven NHL. Case in point, Dallas Stars’ netminder Marty Turco delivered what will likely go down as the playoffs’ most impressive goaltending performance (a sparkling .952 save percentage and 1.30 goals-against average), yet the Stars and their pop-gun offense were eliminated in the first round by the only slightly more prolific Canucks.

Indeed, the Ducks’ struggles in the first three games against the Wings — and their subsequent and impressive resurgence — went far beyond Giguere. Forward Teemu Selanne led the Ducks with 48 goals and 94 points during the regular season, performing at a consistently high level throughout, but at that point his postseason production was sporadic. The “Finnish Flash” was mired in a deep slump, held scoreless for four consecutive games, and with star defenseman Chris Pronger suspended for Game 4, things weren’t looking very good for Anaheim.

But the Ducks’ offensive catalyst heated up at the optimal moment, helping to get his team back on track. Selanne has tallied five points in the last two games, including the winning goal in overtime of Game 5, and he — along with center Andy McDonald and new linemate Brad May — appear to have discovered a winning formula for success against the Wings. With May crashing the net and battling along the boards, Selanne and McDonald have been able to find open ice for the first time since usual linemate Chris Kunitz went down with a broken hand. And for Detroit’s tiring defense, that’s not a good sign at all.

The Wings did manage to win two of the series’ first three games despite the absence of two key rearguards, Mathieu Schneider and Niklas Kronwall. But there are now some indications that Detroit’s good fortune is beginning to run out, and that their defense is cracking under the immense workload.

Late in Sunday’s Game 5, with the Wings leading 1–0 and Detroit forward Pavel Datsyuk in the penalty box for a very questionable interference fraction, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle pulled Giguere to give his team a six-on-four advantage. Forty-five-year-old defenseman Chris Chelios failed on a clearing attempt, as did Johan Franzen, allowing the Ducks to keep applying pressure. Soon thereafter, Anaheim captain Scott Niedermayer fired a shot that caromed off Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom’s stick and over Dominik Hasek’s head, evening the score at one.

In overtime, it was veteran Andreas Lilja who was the victim and, ultimately, the goat. He attempted to carry the puck out from behind the Wings’ net, but was pursued aggressively by McDonald and Selanne. McDonald poked the puck away from Lilja and Selanne swooped in, rushing back towards Hasek and lifting a backhand over the Wings’ sprawled-out netminder to give the Ducks a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

It could be fairly argued that these experienced Wings should have already clinched a spot in the Cup finals, rather than finding themselves on the brink of elimination. Without question, a lesser team would be crushed by similar failures in Games 4 and 5. But this Red Wings roster has collected a combined 19 Cup rings, and they know as well as any NHL club what it takes to hoist Lord Stanley’s chalice.

Unfortunately for the Wings, both momentum and history are on the Ducks’ side, with 80% of teams taking a 3–2 series lead going on to win. And so it’s likely going to take a superhuman “turn back the clock” effort from their aging stars if Hockeytown’s heroes are to force a winner-takes-all Game 7 in Motown on Thursday night. All season long, these Wings have proven the naysayers wrong … can they do it again?

Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com.