Showdowns Dominate Western Landscape

Tonight is Big Monday in the NHL’s Western Conference.

Sixth-place Vancouver at ninth-place Anaheim.

Seventh-place Winnipeg at fourth-place St. Louis.

Eighth-place Calgary at 10th-place Edmonton.

Involved: Five teams separated by six points in the standings on the last Monday of the regular season.

At stake: The last one, two or three Western Conference playoff slots in next week’s Stanley Cup first round.

Fortunately for Ron Wilson, the Ducks’ coach has a full evening’s work load to plow through, something to divert his attention from the out-of-town results and the intestinal distress that comes with them.

Unlike Saturday night.

Wilson spent his Easter eve in a San Jose sports bar, busily charting Duck playoff scenarios while a nearby television monitor kept him abreast of Calgary at Winnipeg, which was going Wilson’s way--Calgary, 3-2--deep into the third period.

Then, as Wilson gravely remembers it, Winnipeg’s Mike Eastwood slings the puck from behind the Calgary goal “and the goalie knocks it into his own net” with barely three minutes remaining.

Thirty seconds later, “Winnipeg has complete control, [Craig] Janney makes a pass and [Keith] Tkachuk scores from a damn near impossible angle.”

Final score: Winnipeg 4, Calgary 3.

Ducks lose two more points to the Jets in the race for eighth place.

“I watched that game,” Wilson said, “and it was so damned depressing. But the worst part was, after the game, I challenged Matt McConnell, our radio broadcaster and resident geek, to air hockey--and I lost, 7-2.

“After that, I decided to go to bed early.”

Early to bed, wary to rise. On the morning of the Ducks’ latest must-win game--Sunday, noon, against the San Jose Sharks--Wilson feared it would be “very easy to be psychologically down after the [Winnipeg-Calgary] game went all wrong.” But that’s a coach’s lot. He is paid to scout and fret and stare at a hotel room ceiling, unable to blink hard enough to shake the indelible image of Rick Tabaracci accidentally banging the puck into his own net.

The Ducks? Most of them did as defenseman Bobby Dollas did--avoid all incarnations of ESPN on Saturday and then give the people back home something worth watching on Sunday.

“I could’ve been up last night thinking, ‘What if this happens, what if that happens,’ ” Dollas said. “But, see, I don’t care. Basically, we control our own fate. Whatever happens, happens.”

Actually, Dollas is basically wrong about one thing. There is no qualifier required: The Ducks, after Sunday’s 5-3 victory at San Jose Arena, definitely, positively, absolutely control their destiny now.

Play four more games, win them all and there’s nothing anyone in the Western Conference or the Kings booster club can do about it--the Ducks will qualify for the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs.

“That’s what I told the guys before the game,” Wilson said Sunday. “I said, ‘One thing’s for sure--if we go 5-0, we’re definitely in.’ Now, it’s 4-0. If we win [tonight], it’s 3-0.

“We can win three in a row.”

The Ducks’ final week, at a glance:

Game 1--Tonight, at home, against Vancouver. The Canucks are 4-7 in their last 11--2-7 if you don’t count victories against the Kings. (There is a movement afoot to make this an NHL regulation next season.) The Canucks are also 1-5 on the road since March 3. That lone victory, again, came Saturday night at the Forum.

Game 2--Wednesday, at Colorado. “We’ve played well against them,” Wilson notes. “They beat us twice in their place, by one goal each time, and we’ve beaten them at our building three times.”

Game 3--Friday, at home, against Dallas. Potential problem here. The Ducks are 0-9 in their last nine games with the Stars.

Game 4--Sunday, at home, against Winnipeg. Three points presently separate the eighth-place Jets and the ninth-place Ducks. “The Big Summit,” is Wilson’s Don Kingian take on the upcoming season finale.

“Psychologically, there’s a big difference between saying ‘We have to go 5-0’ and ‘4-0,’ ” Wilson said. “Four-and-oh is a little more conceivable. We have three games at home against sub-.500 teams and one game at Colorado, who we’ve played well against.”

It can be done, Wilson is saying, and if the Ducks do, they can book an extra plane flight to Detroit without any outside help what so ever, travel agent not included.

However, Dollas--pragmatist, realist, open-eyed world-wise veteran--sees it this way:

“Vancouver [remains] a good hockey team, and they’re going to be thinking, ‘We’ve got to play hard tonight, because the Ducks could knock us out.’ Colorado is a great hockey team--that game could go either way. Dallas we haven’t beaten all year. And Winnipeg is a big, big game.

“We don’t need help, but we need help, know what I mean? You never know what’s going to happen.”

Help, in hockey as in life, begins at home. That’s where the Ducks find themselves tonight--faceoff at 7:35.

If they take care of their end, Wilson can tell where the Ducks will find themselves this time next week. Just give him a minute. He’s got it written down somewhere.