The last two Stanley Cup champions were evenly matched in their second-round series opener. Then host Detroit got the best of Anaheim.

Nicklas Lidstrom scored his second goal of the game with 49.1 seconds left, lifting the Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the Ducks last night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series.

Lidstrom started the winning play behind his own net, skated up the ice, shot and scored off his rebound.

"Special player," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said.

Lidstrom scored a go-ahead goal for the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings in the second period after teammate and fellow Swede Johan Franzen tied it at 2 in the first.

"It's playoff hockey and there's a lot of intensity out there," Lidstrom said. "Both teams want to win real hard and that really comes out in a game like this."

Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne scored for the Ducks, who hoisted the Cup in 2007.

BRUINS ROLL IN OPENER, 4-1

Marc Savard scored twice and Tim Thomas stopped 26 shots to lead host Boston past Carolina, 4-1, last night in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Michael Ryder scored for the fourth game in a row, and David Krejci also scored for the top-seeded Bruins, who swept the Hurricanes during the regular season and last night made it five straight — by a total score of 22-7.

"Whether we lost 10-0 or 4-1 it makes no difference," Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour said. "It's a loss, and we're going to have to regroup and do better next game."

AUTO RACING

BUSCH WINS LIPTON TEA 250

Kyle Busch passed Carl Edwards on the first lap of a restart with 22 laps to go and won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race last night at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va.

Busch, who led four times in the Lipton Tea 250, made the move that counted in the third and fourth turns on the 229th trip around the 0.75-mile oval. Edwards led the previous 71 laps, with Busch seemingly the only other driver with a car to contend.

Busch's Toyota, he said, "was right when it mattered most."

The victory was Busch's third in nine starts this season and 13th since the start of last season.

NFL

BROWNS GIVE HARRELL TRYOUT

Former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell, who wasn't taken in last weekend's NFL draft, was invited to the Cleveland Browns rookie minicamp on a three-day tryout. He wasn't offered a contract, so nothing is guaranteed beyond tomorrow.

Harrell owns the NCAA record with 134 career TD passes and is second behind Hawai'i's Tim Chang (17,072) with 15,793 career yards.

TENNIS

ROME TOP SEEDS ADVANCE

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic posted straight-set wins yesterday to set up a semifinal meeting in the Rome Masters, and three-time champion Rafael Nadal advanced in the other half of the draw.

The top-seeded Nadal cruised past eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco, 6-3, 6-3, and will play 12th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, rallied past qualifier Juan Monaco 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The second-seeded Federer beat German qualifier Mischa Zverev, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Djokovic stayed on course to defend his title in this clay-court warmup for the French Open with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over fifth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro.

JANKOVIC UPSET IN QUARTERS

Unseeded Flavia Pennetta upset defending champion and third-seeded Jelena Jankovic, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 yesterday, lining up a semifinal with top-ranked Dinara Safina in the Porsch Grand Prix at Stuttgart, Germany.

Safina, playing her first tournament since becoming No. 1, beat eighth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-2. Second-seeded Elena Dementieva defeated Marion Bartoli, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, and will play fifth-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who defeated Gisela Dulko, 6-3, 6-2.

AND WHAT'S MORE ...

Michael Cooper will leave as Los Angeles Sparks coach after this WNBA season to coach Southern California's women's basketball team, athletic director Mike Garrett said yesterday. ... Brett Favre says he's retired, but Minnesota coach Brad Childress acknowledges it's likely the Vikings will at least assess their interest in the record-setting quarterback later in the offseason. ... First-period power-play goals from forwards Kyle Okposo and David Backes lifted the United States to a 6-2 victory over France last night in the ice hockey world championship at Bern, Switzerland.