ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Detroit Red Wings went after every puck like it was a pot of gold, finished every check, banked two goals in the first period and another in the second period and cashed in with a trip to Chicago for round two of the playoffs.

By the time the third period rolled around Sunday night at Honda Center, the Red Wings were protecting a lead and held onto it to claim Game 7, 3-2, the first time in the series the Red Wings won in regulation.

“We wanted to have a good start and we did that,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “Then we just kept playing. There were a few moments when they took over and we were on our heels a little bit, but overall, we played a good game. It was nice.”

After upsetting the second-seeded Ducks, the Wings next will take on the top-seeded Blackhawks, who polished off the Minnesota Wild last Thursday.

The Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks will play in the other Western Conference series.

“It was good to see that we can move on,” Zetterberg said. “It’s been a different year for us, and the way we got it together at the end of the year and played our way into the postseason and kept going was really fun to see.”

The NHL has not released a schedule, but Detroit’s next series will open Wednesday at United Center. That gives the Red Wings at least a day and a half at home – they planned to fly home from Anaheim Monday – and the opportunity to practice Tuesday in Detroit before getting back on a plane. Under any circumstance playing the Blackhawks will not be as taxing traveling-wise as it was playing the Ducks, which over the past week required four three-hour time-zone changes.

The Blackhawks won all four meetings, though one required overtime and two went to a shootout.

“It’s going to be fast-paced games,” defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “They have so much talent up front, they have puck-moving defensemen, they play at a high pace and at the same time, they’ve got some big bodies. Should be a tough match-up.”

The Red Wings come into the series with good swaggering after the way they finished off round one.

They trailed after every odd game, were tied after every even game. When everything really was on the line in Game 7, though, the Red Wings outplayed the Ducks in every facet, winning every 50/50 battle, refraining from retaliation penalties.

Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader bookended first-period goals around Emerson Etem’s contribution. Valtteri Filppula backhanded a pass from Daniel Cleary for a 3-1 lead with six minutes to go in the second period. The Ducks cut it to 3-2 with 3:17 to play when Francois Beauchemin’s power play shot went in off Jonathan Ericsson.

Each side switched up lines at the start of the game in an effort to outsmart the other, with the Red Wings separating Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk and the Ducks, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. The Red Wings got what they wanted out of it: A goal, 1:49 after the game began. Valtteri Filppula sent a shot on net, and the rebound popped into the slot, Zetterberg popped it back in the other direction, into an open net.

The Red Wings dominated the start with such mastery they outshot the Ducks 7-1 after five minutes. They weren’t able to convert during a power play, which seemed to instill some energy into the Ducks, and then Anaheim got a power play. They didn’t convert either, but got momentum on their side and scored 20 seconds later. Jonas Hiller sent the puck to Beauchemin, who found Etem in the neutral zone. Etem cross into Detroit’s zone, swung left to right and flipped the puck behind Jimmy Howard to tie the game at 13:48.

When Kyle Quincey cross-checked Daniel Winnik so hard he needed attention from the trainer on the ice, the Red Wings had to go back on the penalty kill. A bad pass by Beauchemin enabled Abdelkader to get the puck right onto his stick; he immediately took off straight up the ice and scored with eight seconds left on Anaheim’s power play. Howard finished off his first period with a glove save on Ben Lovejoy as the Ducks outshot the Wings, 12-11.

After that wild of a first period, both teams settled down to start the second period. Gustav Nyquist tried to make something happen with a bouncy rebound, but was rebuffed by Hiller. Howard denied Luca Sbisa even as the puck snuck through traffic, and Hiller followed up with a glove save on Datsyuk.

The Red Wings got their third goal with 6:15 to go in the second period. Zetterberg won a face-off, and when the puck squirted loose, Cleary gave chase. The puck went to Filppula, who registered his first goal of the playoffs. Matt Beleskey had something of a breakaway after Brendan Smith lost his balance and the puck, but Howard redirected the puck and chaser Teemu Selanne wasn’t able to get a second go at it on the play.

A Quincey slash put the Wings shorthanded in the last 90 seconds of the second period, but Selanne helped out with a cross-checking penalty, ending the Ducks’ power play after a minute.

The Ducks pressed hard in the final period and got a goal from Beauchemin, but the Red Wings had done too much work to be thwarted.

Helene St. James covers the NHL for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett affliliate. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jimmy Howard learned from Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, Henrik Zetterberg from Steve Yzerman, Niklas Kronwall from Nicklas Lidstrom.

The present generation of Detroit Red Wings leaders are calm and loose, because they know this is the best way to approach a Game 7. If thoughts stray to the possible outcome Sunday night — advancement or elimination — they know to use the magnitude of what’s at stake in a positive manner. And above all: Enjoy the moment.

Lifted to victory in overtime two nights ago in Detroit on the backs of Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, the Red Wings get to participate in one of the most exciting events in sports now in their first-round series against the second-seeded Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks and Red Wings have taken turns winning games through the first six meetings, and now there’s only one dance left.

“It’s an exciting time of the year, for sure,” Kronwall said after the Red Wings flew into Orange County on Saturday afternoon, opting to remain in Detroit overnight to get as much sleep as possible. “It truly is a real elimination game compared to maybe some other games. It’s one team moves on and one team goes home. As simple as that.”

Several Red Wings have been in Game 7′s, with Kronwall, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Daniel Cleary, Valtteri Filppula, Todd Bertuzzi and Jonathan Ericsson all going through it four times before and Howard, twice. They know the best approach is to play it cool.

“You can’t let anything bother you,” Howard said. “One thing I learned when I was a Black Ace here watching Dom and Ozzie is, you let everything roll off your back.”

Zetterberg echoed the explanation that a seventh game is different from being faced with elimination earlier in the series, like the Red Wings were Friday.

“It’s just a special feeling going in and playing a Game 7,” he said. “You don’t have to play them that often, and there’s something special about them.

“It is fun. It’s a big game, just because you don’t see them that often.”

No one has won two straight games in this series yet. The Ducks will try to feed off their home crowd and hope that Corey Perry will build on his strong play at the end of the third period and bank on Ryan Getzlaf once again living up to his “Captain Comeback” nickname, and count on continued output from support players such as Kyle Palmieri and Emerson Etem.

“We need more out of Corey and Getzy; we rely on them,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We’ve been a four-line team all year long. The Palmieris and Etems are the guys who are playing as good as anybody right now. If we can equalize Zetterberg and Datsyuk, I think we have a good chance.”

For the visiting team, the first 10 minutes of a game of this magnitude is often about weathering the storm. The Red Wings would like to set the forecast themselves.

“Hopefully, we can come out with a good start,” Kronwall said. “I think that would be the biggest thing, and then just stick to what we do, keep believing in what we do. Because I think everyone feels when we play our game, we’re a really good hockey team.”

The Red Wings were buoyed in Game 6 by the insertion of puck-moving defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo. The only change to Game 7 will be on the fourth lin

e, with Patrick Eaves an option to replace Mikael Samuelsson or Bertuzzi. Otherwise, the Red Wings just need to build on all but the last four minutes of Friday’s game, which saw them squander a two-goal lead to force overtime.

That includes getting lots of shots through to Jonas Hiller, even though he’s fronted by a superb shot-blocking defense. It includes avoiding penalties. It means starting well, staying composed and playing like the team that stormed through the last week of the regular season.

The present generation of Red Wings leaders learned from their mentors how to approach Sunday night, and now the next generation is learning from Zetterberg and Datsyuk and Kronwall how to carry themselves.

“You learn stuff from this,” rookie Joakim Andersson said. “You learn when you lost the last game and then you learn from winning this game. Four out of six games so far have gone to overtime and I’m not surprised if we go to overtime in Game 7, too.”

Helene St. James covers the NHL for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett affiliate. Follow Helene on Twitter @HeleneStJames.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Like a good son, Niklas Kronwall sent his mom flowers on Mother’s Day. One problem: He timed it right for the U.S. holiday, but not for back home in his native Sweden, where his mom Tove lives.

“We have a different Mother’s Day back home,” Kronwall said, laughing. “A few years ago when I first got over here, I sent her flowers on the U.S. Mother’s Day, and she got a little confused. She didn’t know what was going on. Then I found out we had a different date for it.”

That’s pretty much the same experience fellow countryman Henrik Zetterberg went through.

“She gets two Mother’s Days,” Zetterberg said, adding he’d call Ulla Zetterberg on Sunday. “Actually, the first time I got over here, I thought it was the same date, but I missed the Swedish one, so she was a little upset. But ever since that, she got two days, so she’s been good.”

Funnily enough, Kronwall and Zetterberg did not agree on when Mother’s Day falls in Sweden. Kronwall said “it’s later,” while Zetterberg said, “I think it’s earlier.” According to Wikipedia, it’s the last Sunday in May. Ulla Zetterberg might be holding a grudge.

Helene St. James covers the NHL for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett affiliate. Follow Helene on Twitter @HeleneStJames.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.