Ducks’ Kids Take Charge in Final Game : Hockey: Rookies show their stuff in 6-1 season-ending victory over the Maple Leafs.

The Mighty Ducks did what only Stanley Cup champions and non-playoff teams can do.

They won the last game of their season, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1, Wednesday night in front of 17,174 at The Pond.

Randy Wood scored the only goal for the playoff-bound Maple Leafs, who had nothing to play for after Chicago won home-ice for their first-round playoff series by beating the Kings earlier in the evening.

As for the Ducks, rookie Steve Rucchin had a goal and two assists. Randy Ladouceur, Shaun Van Allen, Bob Corkum and rookies Milos Holan and Paul Kariya also scored. Defenseman Darren Van Impe recorded an assist in his NHL debut, as rookies accounted for 11 of the 17 points. With that, the Ducks put two seasons in their rear-view mirror. They were last in the Western Conference--finishing behind the Kings for the first time--but managed to stay in the playoff race until two games remained.

“That’s just a nice way to go into the summer for all our young players,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “They know the kind of team we can be. I’m proud of our season. Everybody forgets this is our second season, and we’ve been in two playoff races.

“Next year,” he added with a little laugh, “we have a chance to lose in the first round.”

The Ducks’ 16-27-5 record in the 48-game irregular season wasn’t as successful as their 33-46-5 first season, but the team made progress by acquiring younger players to complement such budding stars as Kariya and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky.

“We made a lot of changes and added a lot of good young players,” right wing Joe Sacco said. “It was a tough transition with all the changes, but we stuck with it and made a good run at the playoffs. Unfortunately, we fell short. The team is headed in the right direction.”

The big story of the Ducks’ season was the debut of Kariya, who led the team in scoring with 18 goals and 39 points. Tverdovsky needed more seasoning, but his speed and stickhandling sometimes rivaled Kariya for pure flash.

Rucchin went largely unnoticed while making the rare jump from Canadian college hockey to the NHL, but he looks as if he’ll be a core player for the team.

The Ducks started the season as if mired in the classic sophomore slump, but a flurry of trades brought young defensemen Holan, Dave Karpa, and Jason York to the lineup and relegated veteran Tom Kurvers to the press box. The team added offense by acquiring forwards Todd Krygier and Mike Sillinger through trades.

“I like to think if we started with this group of defensemen at the beginning of the year we very likely would have made the playoffs, if all other things were equal,” Wilson said.

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Duck Notes

Defenseman Dave Karpa--rejected by the Kings as physically unfit to play this season because of an improperly healed broken right wrist--is tentatively scheduled for surgery May 9, but doctors say there is a chance he no longer needs the operation at all. The Ducks gambled by trading for Karpa, and he proved them right by playing 26 games.