Ducks Inch Closer to a Playoff Spot

It was difficult to know what ranked as the more unusual sight when the final buzzer sounded Wednesday at the Pond.

Was it Patrick Roy, future Hall of Fame goaltender, stalking rookie J.F. Jomphe with intent to do bodily harm? Or was it merely the final score on the board?

Count it as a tossup. In the end, a 4-0 rout of the Colorado Avalanche meant far more to the Mighty Ducks. Certainly, the Ducks looked like the polished, confident playoff team. The Avalanche did not.

Wednesday’s victory, their third straight, moved the Ducks within five points of Winnipeg for the eighth and final playoff spot. Moreover, they’re only six points behind Toronto for the No. 7 spot.

Once again, Colorado skated onto the Pond ice and seemed to forget how to play in the fashion that has enabled it to become the runaway leader in the Pacific Division.

The Avalanche took bad penalties, lost track of the Ducks buzzing the net, lost their cool and performed their third consecutive belly-flop in Anaheim. Colorado lost, 7-3, in November and, 2-1, in January at the Pond.

“We really got under their skin,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “They were just so frustrated that they couldn’t get to the net.”

And when the Avalanche managed to get in close range, goalie Guy Hebert came up with one big save after another. Hebert stopped all 27 Colorado shots and recorded his second shutout this season and the seventh of his career.

Later, in the quiet of the dressing room, he fielded more questions about Roy’s wild swing at Jomphe than about shutting out the Avalanche. But winning meant more than anything else, he said.

“The shutout is fantastic and getting to beat Patrick Roy is a great win for me, but it’s all secondary,” Hebert said. “I’m just happy with the points and we’ll take it from here. This was one of our better games in a long time. If we can do this consistently, we’re going to find ourselves in a great spot to make the playoffs.”

Roy is considered one of the league’s top goalies, but he’s a three-time loser against the Ducks this season. They got him once as a member of the Montreal Canadiens Nov. 8, then Jan. 31 after he was traded to Colorado.

And he looked like nothing more than a frustrated hothead with 4:23 left in the second period.

Upset that Jomphe upended him while going after a loose puck, Roy joined tough guy Warren Rychel in chasing down the Duck rookie. Rychel and David Karpa eventually squared off to fight and that’s when Roy popped Jomphe.

When the rumble was broken up, the sellout crowd of 17,174 razzed Roy with a “Pat-rick, Pat-rick” chant.

“It’s happened a few times,” Roy said of charging out of the net to fight. “It makes you feel good. You take your frustrations out.”

Teemu Selanne recorded a point for his 14th consecutive game since joining the Ducks in the Feb. 7 trade from Winnipeg. The Ducks also got contributions from players far down on their depth chart.

“It was great that it wasn’t the Paul [Kariya] and Teemu show,” Wilson said. “Maybe some of the teams we play forget the other guys and let up.”

Colorado’s top scorers, Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic, seemed invisible for long stretches.

Valeri Karpov scored in the first and second periods for only his fifth and sixth goals this season. Later in the second, Selanne set up Garry Valk with a pretty move and pass. Steve Rucchin sealed the victory with a short-handed goal 4:46 into the third.

Duck Notes

The Ducks signed defenseman Fredrik Olausson, who has given the Ducks’ power play a boost since he was claimed off waivers from Edmonton Jan. 16, to a new two-year contract. Hovering around a league-low 10% conversion rate for most of the season, the power play is clicking at 16.8% in the 21 games since Olausson joined the Ducks. “He’s been a welcome addition,” General Manager Jack Ferreira said. “We don’t expect 20 goals in a season from him, but it’s nice to have somebody to run the power play.” Ferreira hopes to swing a deal for more goal-scoring before next Wednesday’s trading deadline. “It’s going to be tough because we’ve kind of run out of bullets,” he said. The Ducks traded Chad Kilger and Oleg Tverdovsky, their last two No. 1 picks, to get Teemu Selanne from Winnipeg last month.