Role Players Get Into Scoring Act During Playoff Drive

The more Garry Valk talked, the more he laughed at the thought of it.

“It’s not like you lace your skates on going, ‘I feel great tonight, maybe I’ll get a hat trick,’ ” he said.

Territory that used to be reserved for Teemu Selanne and Terry Yake--remember Terry Yake?--is now shared by Valk. His hat trick Friday was only the fourth in Duck history, and he paid a small tribute to Selanne and Paul Kariya for it.

“We all know what our limitations are as players. But they definitely bring such skill, you see them make a nice play, and it’s not that you try to copy it, but it creates excitement,” Valk said. “Besides, with the way Teemu passes, and Paul, too, if you go to the net they’ll put it on your stick.”

The precision and enthusiasm are catching.

“The other night it was Val Karpov and Steve Rucchin,” Valk said. “Tonight it was me who scored . . . a few,” he said, breaking into another laugh.

The Ducks don’t take any hat trick lightly, but Valk’s first NHL hat trick was one they especially appreciated.

“It’s nice to see someone like that, who doesn’t get a lot of limelight,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “When he scored that third goal, everybody on the bench was pretty happy.”

After the third goal, Selanne told Valk to be ready, he’d probably get a couple more chances. He did, and it’s no stretch to say he could have had five goals. Even four would have set a club record.

“That’s right, but I don’t know how long it would have lasted, the way Paul and Teemu are playing,” Wilson said.

The trajectory of Valk’s career was a little uncertain after last season, when he couldn’t reproduce the offensive punch he showed in the Ducks’ first season. But he’s settled into a valuable defensive role.

“He’s just slugging away,” Wilson said. “He’s been as consistent as anybody, killing penalties, working hard, a solid effort every night. Some nights he has trouble handling the puck so he just plays physically instead. He always gives you everything he’s got. He’s a constant.”

Or, as an overly self-deprecating--and still smiling--Valk said: “Every dog has his day.”

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Anatoli Semenov could have had his original No. 19 back when he returned to the Ducks, but he turned up his nose at it.

“It’s no luck,” said Semenov, who chose No. 93, a reference to the team’s first season in 1993-94. “It’s original Duck,” Semenov said before recording two assists in his first game as a Duck since being traded to Philadelphia for defenseman Milos Holan last March.

With Semenov back on the roster, there are five players who were chosen in the 1993 expansion draft. The others are Guy Hebert, Bobby Dollas, Joe Sacco and Randy Ladouceur.

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Eight of the players in key roles now weren’t with the Ducks at the All-Star break.

“That’s why we haven’t taken a team picture--and that might go for the coaches too,” said Wilson, whose own security seemed shaky a few months ago.

The Ducks’ late season turnaround might earn General Manager Jack Ferreira some votes as the NHL’s executive of the year.

Getting Teemu Selanne was the key deal, of course, but Ferreira made a total of seven trades after the All-Star break, and picked up defenseman Fredrik Olausson on waivers as well.

All that, after not making a single deal in the first half of the season.

Besides Selanne and Olausson, who together made the Ducks’ power play into a threat, Ferreira has added forwards Ken Baumgartner, Semenov and Roman Oksiuta through trades and brought up center J.F. Jomphe and defensemen Darren Van Impe and Jason Marshall from the minors.

Duck Notes

The Ducks’ three power play goals tied a club record. . . . Right wing Roman Oksiuta scored his first goal as a Duck and 17th of the season. . . . Geoff Courtnall scored the Blues’ only goal. . . . Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner attended the game, sitting with General Manager Jack Ferreira.