DUCKS PLUCKED AS HEBERT HURT : DETROIT 5, DUCKS 3.

Byline: Greg Christensen

As far as the Mighty Ducks are concerned, the Joe Louis Arena is aptly named. Every time they visit the place they get knocked out, one way or another.

Wednesday night in the first game of their Stanley Cup playoff series against Detroit they survived a flurry of opening-minute punches, only to eventually lose the game 5-3, along with goalie Guy Hebert, before a crowd of 19,983.

The Ducks are now 1-11-3 in the Motor City.

Hebert is becoming his own personal house of horrors. He was hit in the head by Brendan Shanahan's skate after the Detroit winger was pushed by Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei and sent flying. Shanahan's skate clipped Hebert on the top left of his mask and the goalie left at 9:33 with the Red Wings ahead 3-2.

Two years ago, Hebert was knocked out of the playoffs here when he suffered a groin injury in the second game of the Ducks' second-round series with Detroit.

Hebert was prone on the ice for three minutes. He skated off himself but did not return, forcing the emergency use of Tom Askey, who was called up when Dominic Roussel came down with the flu.

``It's not a pleasant sight to see your No. 1 goalie - the most underrated goalie in the league - go down,'' said Steve Rucchin. ``It was hard to take.''

Anaheim coach Craig Hartsburg insisted Hebert would be back.

``He was a little dazed,'' Hartsburg said. ``But he should be all right for the next game.''

The Ducks can only hope so. Hebert was brilliant while he did play. He stopped 23 of 26 shots and kept the Ducks close as Detroit bombed away, especially when the Ducks were hemmed in their own end the first four minutes.

``(Detroit was) awesome in the first period,'' said Hartsburg. ``(Hebert) was unbelievable. He kept us in the game.

Hebert was so good he allowed the Ducks, who were outshot 37-29, to take a short-lived lead when Marty McInnis scored a power play goal at 6:41.

Less than five minutes later, Steve Yzerman began work on a hat trick. Nicklas Lidstrom's shot sailed wide, but the puck took a big bounce off the end boards and the Detroit captain beat Salei to the puck and poked it home at 11:06.

Hebert had little chance on Detroit's second goal, either. Sergei Fedorov's harmless-looking shot hit Pavel Trnka's skate and before the Anaheim defenseman could clear it, Wendel Clark snapped a shot past Hebert with 2:30 remaining in the period.

The Red Wings never relinquished the lead, even though the Ducks twice pulled within one on goals by Paul Kariya at 1:45 of the second period and Teemu Selanne at 13:03 of the third.

``I thought we played a good final 40 minutes,'' said Hartsburg. ``The building was really rocking and our young players learned some things. There are things we can build on.''

Askey, however, certainly wasn't expecting on-the-job playoff training after arriving in Detroit at 3 p.m. Askey played the entire 1998-99 season with Cincinnati of the American Hockey League after playing in portions of seven games with the Ducks last year.

``I'm sure he had no thought yesterday afternoon that he'd be playing in a Stanley Cup playoff game tonight,'' said Hartsburg.

Askey stopped nine of 11 shots, but he was burned by Yzerman with 1:18 left in the game when he got caught out of the net.

``I thought that was my fault,'' said Askey, who was in no-man's land when Selanne was knocked off the puck by Shanahan.

Hartsburg, however, refused to blame his young goalie.

``It was unfortunate,'' said Hartsburg, who thought Selanne was tripped. ``He (Askey) should be proud of himself.''

Newcomer comes through: One of Detroit's newly acquired guns had a huge impact on Wednesday's game, and it wasn't Chris Chelios - although the veteran defenseman certainly had his moments.

Wendel Clark, acquired from Tampa Bay, gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead in the first period and then made a perfect backhand centering pass to Doug Brown on Detroit's third goal, 31 seconds into the second period.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Detroit's Aaron Ward checks Anaheim's Paul Kariya against the boards in Detroit's 5-3 victory.

(2) Detroit's Steve Yzerman skates past Anaheim's Tomas Sandstrom. Yzerman scored a hat trick in Game 1 of the playoff series.

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press