Van Allen Scores in Time for Ducks to Remain in Hunt

When it was over, when the Mighty Ducks pulled off a last-second victory that pushed them into a four-way tie for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, Ron Wilson smiled broadly.

“Unbelievable,” he said after the Ducks’ 2-1 victory over Calgary in front of 17,174 at The Pond of Anaheim.

For almost 60 minutes, picking a winner between the Ducks and Flames proved to be as difficult as determining the team that will emerge as the eighth playoff qualifier.

Then, Shaun Van Allen got a jump on the Calgary defense, controlled a perfect pass from Peter Douris and beat Calgary goaltender Trevor Kidd on a breakaway with five seconds left in regulation.

The victory enabled the Ducks to elbow their way into the four-team, eighth-place pack, joining San Jose, Winnipeg and the Kings with 35 points. Edmonton is one point behind.

Van Allen charged in alone on Kidd, then flipped a well-placed shot into the right-hand corner of the net for the game-winning goal.

“I’ve probably never scored a goal this big in the NHL,” Van Allen said. “I had a couple in the minors I thought were big, but right now this has to be the biggest.”

Asked if this was the biggest victory in franchise history, Wilson paused to take yet another shot at the Kings.

“Any time we beat the Los Angeles Kings is the biggest win in franchise history,” he said.”Second is beating San Jose. But this is big for the circumstances and what it means for the team to come through in a playoff hunt.

“You couldn’t have written it any better to score with five seconds left.”

At the buzzer, the Ducks mobbed goalie Guy Hebert in celebration.

With only four games left, nothing less than a victory would have been acceptable, especially after a one-goal lead became a 2-2 tie in the final seconds of Sunday’s game against the Kings.

Against the Flames, Todd Krygier gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 10:48 into the game.

The Flames countered with a Ronnie Stern goal at the 6:24 mark of the second period.

It stayed tied, although not for lack of chances or aggressiveness by either side, until Van Allen’s breakaway in the waning moments.

He seemed an unlikely candidate to slip past the Flame defense.

“Shaun might be the slowest forward we have, but he took off like a man on a mission,” Wilson said.

Said Van Allen: “I’m not noted for my speed but if you clocked me there it was probably the fastest I’ve ever gone.

“Douris had an option to pass to Joe (Sacco) or I, but he gave it to me because I had a step on Joe. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. Ron said he (Kidd) had been dropping his glove, so I knew I was going to try to go upstairs with it.”

The Ducks appeared to open the game with the appropriate sense of urgency, taking the play to the Flames for long stretches.

The hitting was often fierce, bordering on chippy at times, but neither team backed down. Calgary came armed with plenty of motivation, seeking to secure first place and the No. 2 seeding in the playoffs.

There also was the matter of exacting some revenge for two consecutive losses to the Ducks. Now the streak is three.

*

Duck Notes

David Sacco, John Lilley, Jason Marshall and Darren Van Impe were recalled from the Ducks’ minor-league affiliate at San Diego, which lost to Milwaukee in the first round of the International Hockey League playoffs. They were scratched for Monday’s game. Sacco, younger brother of Duck right wing Joe Sacco, and Lilley each played eight games for the Ducks earlier this season. Sacco had two assists and Lilley two goals and one assist.

Enforcer Todd Ewen missed his second consecutive game because of a charley horse. Plagued by nagging injury, Ewen has played only 24 games. . . . Robert Dirk remained sidelined because of a cut on his chin that required 40 stitches to close after he was hit by a puck during the April 13 game against Calgary. . . .Prime Sports has dropped next Monday’s game against St. Louis because of a conflict with the Laker playoff game that night. The network will broadcast the Ducks’ season finale against Toronto on May 3 instead.