Ducks Stay Alive, but Their Destiny Is in Other Hands

Now the Mighty Ducks have to decide whether they can bear to watch.

Or bear not to.

Their playoff hopes are still alive after a 5-3 victory over Dallas in a must-win game Friday night before 17,174 at the Pond.

But they need for either Toronto to lose or Vancouver to lose or tie tonight to make their final game of the season Sunday against Winnipeg a one-game, do-or-die battle for their first trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“Some guys don’t want to watch,” goalie Guy Hebert said. “They want to take their medicine quick, find out who won or lost. I’m a hockey fan. I’ll be sitting in front of the tube.”

With one game left, the Ducks have 76 points and are one point behind eighth-place Vancouver and two points behind Toronto and Winnipeg, though the Jets already have clinched because they own the tiebreaker against the Ducks since they have more victories.

If Vancouver loses to Calgary tonight, the Ducks would need only a tie against Winnipeg on Sunday. (They’d win a tie with Vancouver in the standings because they would have more victories.)

If Toronto loses to Edmonton, the Ducks would need to win to get in, tying Toronto in points but winning the tiebreaker, once again because they would have more victories.

“It’ll be hockey night in Anaheim, watching Hockey Night in Canada,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “The team I rooted for when I was a kid was the Maple Leafs. Now I have to root against them. And obviously I’ll be rooting against the Vancouver Canucks [where he used to be an assistant coach]. The two teams I had ties to, I have to root against them now.”

The Ducks’ Paul Kariya has been playing as if he’d give his eye teeth to make the playoffs, and against Dallas he gave lots of blood--and three capped teeth.

“They’re false teeth, anyway,” Wilson said.

The game turned in the second period after Kariya and the Stars’ Joe Nieuwendyk got their sticks crossed in the neutral zone. Nieuwendyk’s stick popped up violently, sending Kariya crumpling to the ice, and Nieuwendyk drew a high-sticking major and an automatic game misconduct.

The high-sticking penalty gave the Ducks a five-minute power play on which they scored two goals within 27 seconds of each other to take a 3-1 lead.

Referee Terry Gregson could have given Nieuwendyk a double-minor if he thought the injury was inadvertent, but he assessed the major.

“It was just accidental,” Nieuwendyk said. “I was trying to hook him to get toward the puck. It’s always a discretionary call by the ref.”

The score was 1-1 when the long power play started--and Kariya was on the ice from the beginning, though still trying to stem the bleeding in his mouth. Though he’s a slight 5 feet 9 at most, he has paid the price as much as anyone lately, suffering a badly bruised right foot earlier this week when he dived to block a shot--not usually a task undertaken by superstars.

With the long man advantage, Steve Rucchin camped out in front of the goal and scored off a pass from Joe Sacco at 4:40 of the second period for a 2-1 lead.

Unlike minor penalties, major penalties don’t expire after a power-play goal is scored, and seconds later, Teemu Selanne was in the same spot and scored off an assist by Fredrik Olausson for a 3-1 lead only 1:45 into the long power play. Selanne scored a second goal in the third period, his 40th of the season.

The Ducks led by as much as 4-1, and held off the small rally Dallas put up, letting them no closer than 4-2.

Duck Notes

If the Ducks make the playoffs by finishing eighth, they’ll face Detroit beginning with Games 1 and 2 Wednesday and Friday in Detroit, moving to the Pond for Games 3 and 4 on April 21 and April 24. . . . If they finish seventh, they’d play Colorado in Denver Tuesday and Thursday before playing next Saturday and April 23 at the Pond.

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Playoff Race at a Glance

WESTERN CONFERENCE

*--*

Team W L T Pts 1. x-Detroit 61 13 7 129 2. x-Colorado 47 24 10 104 3. x-Chicago 40 28 13 93 4. x-St. Louis 32 34 15 79 5. x-Calgary 34 36 11 79 6. x-Winnipeg 36 39 6 78 7. Toronto 33 36 12 78 8. Vancouver 31 35 15 77 Mighty Ducks 34 39 8 76

*--*

x-clinched playoff spot

FOR DUCKS TO MAKE PLAYOFFS

--A victory over Winnipeg on Sunday, coupled with loss by Toronto tonight.

--A tie with Winnipeg, coupled with loss by Vancouver tonight.