They Made Their Point With Detroit, but Hoped for More

All around the Mighty Ducks’ dressing room there were mixed emotions Friday night. A tie against the Detroit Red Wings provided an unexpected, and badly needed point in the Ducks’ quest for the playoffs.

On the other hand, they couldn’t shake the feeling that they should have snatched two points from the NHL’s winningest team. With three minutes left, the Ducks led the Red Wings, 2-1, and were pressing for a back-breaking third goal.

But Sergei Fedorov’s power-play goal with 3:08 left in regulation crushed the Ducks’ hopes for a victory.

“In the long run, one point is very good,” Teemu Selanne said after the Ducks and Red Wings tied, 2-2, in front of 17,174 at the Pond. “It is a little disappointing, but overall we’re happy. You never know, that could be the one point that puts us in the playoffs.”

In overtime, Selanne had the first of several superb chances to give the Ducks their first victory over Detroit in 12 games. He had a step on the Red Wing defense, but was stopped by goaltender Chris Osgood in the first minute of overtime.

It was the last in a long line of misfired scoring chances for Selanne. Still, he believes the Ducks’ standout performance will add to their already soaring confidence.

“If we keep playing at this level we’re going to win a lot of games,” he said. “The first period, I didn’t think we believed we would win the game. In the second, we realized we could keep up.”

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Jack Ferreira, Duck general manager, admits he’s been tough to live with lately. With his team in its first serious race for a playoff berth, Ferreira said he’s been neglecting other parts of his life.

It’s not as if he’s stopped taking out the trash at home, but he’s thinking about little except hockey as the season comes to a close.

“It’s fun,” Ferreira said. “But I’ve had a hard time concentrating on anything else except the games. . . . I’m so focused on the games I don’t even feel like talking to people on the phone. It’s like, ‘Let’s get it going.’ I wish we were playing the game in an hour.”

Ferreira has made all the moves he can to improve the Ducks, swinging seven deals since Jan. 1 to bolster the third-year team. Acquiring Teemu Selanne from Winnipeg Feb. 7, in particular, sent a signal the Ducks were serious about becoming contenders.

But with the trading deadline long since passed, he now feels helpless.

“There’s nothing you can do now,” he said. “These are the guys who have gotten us where we are.”

He believes his makeover was as successful as he could have hoped. “It’s not all the time you can trade for a Teemu,” Ferreira said.

Ferreira’s next-best move was probably nabbing defenseman Fredrik Olausson off the waiver wire from Edmonton. Olausson has energized the Ducks’ power play since joining the team Jan. 16. The power play had a 10.5% success rate before Olausson’s arrival. In 30 games with him, it’s 17.7%

“The circumstances were right to give it a shot,” he said. “He was in the last year of his contract [and re-signed by the Ducks to a two-year deal]. Here he is on waivers. He’s young still. It was worth a shot.”

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Dependable right wing Peter Douris, sidelined by a groin injury since Dec. 1, doesn’t expect to return to action before the end of the regular season. He underwent a hernia operation March 19 and began skating with the Ducks this week, but isn’t sure he would be able to help the team even if he did come back.

“The team has been going so great,” Douris said. “I don’t want to put any undue pressure on myself to return before I’m ready. It was a groin injury first, then I came back too quick and that’s when it became a hernia.”

Douris, who had eight goals and 15 points in 31 games before the injury, finds it difficult to watch from the stands as the Ducks chase their first playoff berth.

“It’s funny,” he said. “When the team was losing a lot, I’d sit up there and say, ‘I wish I was out there so I could help.’ Now that the team is winning, I sit up there and say, ‘I wish I was out there because it seems so much fun.’ ”