Hebert Stymies the Maple Leafs for Mighty Ducks’ First Shutout : Pro hockey: Goalie stops 38 shots and Tim Sweeney scores in Anaheim’s 1-0 victory.

When the moment came, Guy Hebert basked in it.

He didn’t have to look at the Maple Leaf Gardens scoreboard to know that after 60 minutes, the number under the word Toronto had not changed.

It was still zero.

Hebert made 38 saves to record the first shutout in the Mighty Ducks’ 32-game history, and Tim Sweeney’s shorthanded goal at 6:15 of the third period gave the Ducks a 1-0 victory over Toronto Wednesday in front of 15,728.

It was the Ducks’ 11th victory, and it came against one of the NHL’s best teams. The Maple Leafs set an NHL record with 10 consecutive victories to start the season and entered the game with a 20-7-5 record. Their 45 points tied them with the New York Rangers as the NHL’s best before the loss dropped them to second.

“It’s not every day you can come into Maple Leaf Gardens and beat the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0,” Hebert said. “You know, I don’t think anybody would have guessed we could have ever done it. It’s a credit to the whole team.”

Yes, but to no one more than Hebert, who was stellar Wednesday and has been sharp for quite some time. His goals-against average playing behind an expansion team is a mere 2.59.

Over the last seven games, it is 1.50.

And probably most impressive, he has not been scored against in his last 103 minutes and 56 seconds in goal, dating back to the last minute of the first period of the Ducks’ 2-1 victory over St. Louis Sunday in Anaheim.

This time, he withstood nine Toronto power plays, and a barrage of shots from two of the NHL’s leading goal-scorers. Wendel Clark, who leads the NHL with 26 goals, fired six shots at Hebert. Dave Andreychuk, who has 25 goals, also tried six.

“It was a pretty difficult night,” Hebert said. “Any time that line with Andreychuk, (Doug) Gilmour and Clark is out there, that’s a lot of goals and a lot of points on that line. You can never count them out. You can never think you’re too safe in your own end.

Clark hit the post once, and so did Glenn Anderson. But Hebert made plenty of his own luck. He stopped Kent Manderville on a breakaway in the second, sliding to stop the shot with his pads. And all game long, through nine power plays--including a five-on-three opportunity--Hebert held his ground.

“He was very controlled, and he bailed himself out an awful lot because he controlled the rebounds, in really tough situations,” said Brian Hayward, the Ducks’ goalie coach and television analyst. “Especially in that five-on-three, he didn’t give up many long rebounds. That’s a pretty good indication a guy’s on top of his game. I thought he was just tremendous.”

Still, without Sweeney’s goal, he could have been a loser in overtime--or anguishing over a rare 0-0 tie.

Sweeney scored on a two-on-one against defenseman Dimitri Mironov. It was his fifth goal of the season.

Hebert made one more clutch save on Clark’s point-blank attempt with 11 seconds left, and didn’t budge from the net though he twisted his leg in the final seconds and was attended to by the trainer.

“At that point, with that little time left, you couldn’t have dragged me off the ice I don’t think,” Hebert said. “Tonight feels like one of those nights, you know, they come pretty rare. I saw the puck real real all night tonight. It’s strange, like sometimes you get that feeling once a year, and if you’re fortunate you get it a couple of times.”