Scott Niedermayer's goal lifts Ducks to OT win

Scott Niedermayer scored 14 minutes, 17 seconds into overtime to lift the visiting Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings last night, evening their Stanley Cup Western Conference final series at one game apiece.

Detroit went ahead for the first time in the game 1:03 into the third period, when a two-man advantage created space for Pavel Datsyuk's one-timer off a crisp pass from Robert Lang, but Anaheim's Travis Moen tied the game 4:03 later.

Swarming defense limited scoring chances for the rest of regulation and when shots did go toward the net, Detroit's Dominik Hasek (29 saves) and Anaheim's Jean-Sebastien Giguere (24 saves) didn't flinch.

In the first two periods, the Ducks took the lead twice and Detroit tied the game each time.

Rob Niedermayer scored at 17:04 of the first period and the Wings' Kirk Maltby answered with a shorthanded goal midway through the second.

Then Andy McDonald scored a little more than a minute after Maltby to put Anaheim ahead, 2-1, but Nicklas Lidstrom tied the score at 2-2 at 16:07 of the second period with a power-play goal.

The Ducks' goals by McDonald and Moen both survived official reviews before being registered on the scoreboard.

The next two games of the best-of-seven series will be played in Anaheim, with Game 3 tomorrow night and Game 4 on Thursday. The teams will return to Detroit for Game 5 next Sunday.

At the World Championships:

* At Moscow, Canada won its 24th world hockey championship, getting two goals from Rick Nash and one each from Eric Staal and Colby Armstrong in a 4-2 victory over Finland. Russia won the bronze medal by beating Sweden, 3-1.

"There were a lot of superstars in some of Canada's teams before, but I think this was just a great bunch of guys in the dressing room," said Nash, of the Columbus Blue Jackets. "It was amazing how every game we got better."

* Buffalo Sabres defenseman Henrik Tallinder is sore after being crosschecked headfirst into the boards by Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson in Saturday's game, and could miss tonight's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Ottawa. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wouldn't provide any details of Tallinder's injury, but was unhappy that Alfredsson wasn't penalized on the play. It happened midway through the first overtime of the Senators' 4-3 double-overtime win, which gave them a 2-0 lead in the series. *