Ducks Making Some Progress Step by Step

The Penguins were tired. Do you buy that one? Yeah, it is tough playing those back-to-games in Inglewood and Anaheim, having to repack the shaving kit and bus those 35 miles through sunshine and 75-degree weather. Sunday afternoon traffic in Fullerton can be a bear.

Mario Lemieux only played half the game. This is true, but while he was in there, Super Mario had a breakaway run on Guy Hebert and another point blank try from the left side of the net. Lemieux went oh-for-deux.

The Penguins started their backup goalie. True again, but what had Tom Barrasso, Pittsburgh’s No. 1, done lately? Let in seven goals in two periods against the Kings, including Tim Watters’ first in 3 1/2 years and Brent Thompson’s first as an NHL player? Yes? Just asking.

Any more excuses?

Any other reasons why Pittsburgh’s vaunted ice brigade could come to Anaheim Arena, look down their face shields at the lowly expansion Ducks and then need to rally from a second-period deficit to escape with a 5-4 victory?

Duck center Terry Yake had one.

It had something to with birds of a feather flocking together in a time of serious crisis and thinking they can, thinking they can . . .

“It doesn’t matter who comes in here,” Yake said, “we’ve got to believe we can do it. And tonight we believed.”

Seeing is believing, of course, and with less than five minutes remaining in the second period Sunday night, Yake and his mates were ahead of Lemieux, Jagr, Stevens, Tocchet, McSorley and the rest of the Dallas Cowboys of hockey, 3-2.

And with 17 minutes to play, the score was still tied at 3-3.

And after Kevin Stevens and Jaromir Jagr pumped in goals to restore order and Pittsburgh’s rightful position--ahead on the scoreboard, 5-3--the Ducks continued to make like gnats, pestering the Penguins with another goal with 4:32 left and making goaltender Ken Wregget work much too hard for two points on the ice of a 15-game-old hockey franchise.

Is it progress when the Penguins come to town and Duck Coach Ron Wilson is left outside his locker room door, shaking his head and complaining about a couple of bad bounces?

“They’ve got a little more talent than we do,” Wilson deadpanned. “When they get a lucky break, they usually capitalize on it.”

Wilson felt the Penguins got two of them--two pucks that dribbled away from Ducks in the third period and wound up easy prey for Stevens and Jagr.

“They flip one in the air, we mishandle the puck and Stevens goes in for the score,” Wilson grumbled. “Then, Peter Douris mishandles a puck and Jagr turns it into another goal.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s frustrating. We played with them shot for shot, skate for skate, chance for chance . . . “

Stevens’ tie-breaking goal was pure Pittsburgh: Lemieux in control of the puck from behind his net, coolly surveying the ice as the Ducks skated backward on defense--all but stroking his chin and pulling a monocle out of his pocket--before rifling the outlet pass and beginning a charge to the other end.

Larry Murphy wound up with the puck in the neutral zone and he flipped it high, in the general vicinity of Stevens, who knocked it down with his glove and calmly pounded one over Hebert’s left shoulder.

Jagr followed 12 minutes later with another good-glove, good-hit maneuver of his own. But after Jagr batted the puck down onto the ice, Douris had a swat at it but whiffed completely. Jagr regained control by quickly high-stepping past Douris, faked Hebert left and batted the puck right, finding the corner of the net.

With 4:53 left, the Ducks were down by two goals--and you know the Ducks.

Sometimes, it takes them a whole week to score two goals.

Twenty-one seconds later, however, the red light was flashing again. Patrik Carnback’s slap shot from the right circle beat Wregget and, stunningly, the Ducks were back within 5-4.

Wregget weathered the final 4 1/2 minutes, but not without the help of a swallowed whistle or two. With 3:10 to go, the Ducks’ Garry Valk was tripped on a rush inside the Penguin blue line, but no penalty was called. Brute defense saved Wregget 90 seconds later when the Ducks tried to set Yake up in the slot, only to have Ulf Samuelsson shove Yake out of the way and intercept the puck.

“No loss is encouraging,” Duck winger Todd Ewen said, “but our effort tonight was phenomenal. Everybody in this room gave 110 to 150%. If we are to gauge ourselves by how we played, we have to say this is very positive, very positive.

“Anybody who watched this game probably didn’t expect a game like this. Our last game, we played eight minutes and were down, 5-0. Most people probably expected Pittsburgh to thrash us.”

Pittsburgh didn’t, and the Ducks sought to take solace in that.

“Baby steps,” Ewen said. “Baby steps.”