Bit Player Steals Show for Ducks

Confidence is spreading among the Mighty Ducks faster than the colds and flu they sometimes pass around when they share water bottles.

The Ducks are the second-hottest team in the NHL after defeating St. Louis, 6-1, Friday night in front of 20,760 at the Kiel Center for their sixth victory in a row. Only Detroit has a longer winning streak, at nine.

It’s not only the Teemu Selanne-and-Paul Kariya show, either. After going more than two seasons between hat tricks, the Ducks have three in their last 11 games--two by Selanne, and now one by Garry Valk, a grinder who had nine goals all season before Friday and had never scored more than two goals in an NHL game.

“The way the team is playing, if it wasn’t me, it would be somebody else,” said Valk, who scored three consecutive goals to give the Ducks a 4-0 lead 12:08 into the second period after Paul Kariya got the Ducks off on the right foot with a goal only 39 seconds into the game.

“You expect that from Teemu or Paul. Here it is Garry Valk,” Coach Ron Wilson said.

“Me, I’m happy when I go out there and don’t get scored against on the power play. I’m a penalty-killer,” said Valk, who had a chance for a fourth and fifth goal in the third but was foiled point-blank and then stopped on a breakaway. “You could play your whole career without getting a hat trick. It’s nonstop smiles for me.”

Despite winning, the Ducks stayed one point behind Winnipeg for the final Western Conference playoff spot with 11 games remaining after Winnipeg defeated Philadelphia, 4-1.

The Ducks dominated St. Louis and Wayne Gretzky for the second time in a week after defeating them, 5-1, in Anaheim on Sunday. The only significance the number 99 had Friday was that it’s the number of points Selanne has after assisting on three goals. Kariya had two goals--his 41st and 42nd of the season--and an assist.

Gretzky was held without a point and the frustration showed on his face.

“I’m sure coming in tonight they thought, ‘We’ll show this team,’ ” Wilson said. “It didn’t happen. We got an early lead, and we’ll frustrate a lot of teams the way we check and work hard in our own end. It puts a lot of pressure on people like Wayne Gretzky or whoever. They’re frustrated here again, getting beaten by the Mighty Ducks. They expect to beat a team like ours, but we’re not the same team we were earlier in the season.”

Anatoli Semenov, just reacquired from Philadelpia, started on a line with Kariya and Selanne, and 39 seconds later, the Ducks led, 1-0. Selanne passed ahead to Semenov in the slot, and Semenov dropped it behind to Kariya, who was ready for the shot.

The score was 2-0 only 6:34 into the game after Valk scored his first goal, swatting the rebound of a shot by J.F. Jomphe into the top of the net.

Jomphe had a hand in Valk’s second goal too, poking the puck out to Roman Oksiuta from a scramble near the Ducks’ blue line. Oksiuta got it to Valk for a 3-0 lead.

Valk scored his third during a rare power-play appearance, finding the hole between Grant Fuhr’s pads after lifting the puck over a defender’s stick.

Duck goalie Guy Hebert was stellar again, and has given up only seven goals during the six-game winning streak.

Hebert held off the intimidating duo of Gretzky and Brett Hull in a flurry during the second. Geoff Courtnall made a cross-ice pass to Gretzky on a two-on-none, and Hebert foiled Gretzky’s shot coming across the net. He stopped Hull’s quick release on the rebound, then Hull once more after he picked up a loose puck.