Kariya Gets 50th as Ducks Win

You would never have known how much Paul Kariya wanted his 50th goal of the season until the moment he didn’t get it.

Kariya already had his 49th goal in his pocket during the third period of the Mighty Ducks’ 5-2 victory over Winnipeg in their season-finale Sunday when he slid down the slot and threw a shot at Jet goalie Nikolai Khabibulin.

Khabibulin somehow snagged it with his glove, and Kariya spun away incredulous, nearly crouched over, his expression somewhere between a grimace and a grin.

“An unbelievable save,” Coach Ron Wilson said.

But before Kariya’s shift was over, he danced down the slot again and beat Khabibulin with a backhander for his all-important 50th goal, setting off a tremendous celebration among his teammates and the 17,174 at the Pond of Anaheim.

Kariya became the eighth and final NHL player to reach 50 goals this season, and only the 16th player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season before the age of 22.

“I’m not big into points and goals,” said Kariya, 21. “But Ron told me as long as you have the chance to do something like that. . . . I didn’t care if it went in off my head.”

Kariya--who scored his first goal of the game late in the second--said he thought the puck was across the goal line on Khabibulin’s glove save and that he should have asked for a replay. He didn’t, but he scored perhaps 20 seconds later.

“I find a lot of times [when] I miss opportunities, I bear down and maybe score on the same shift,” Kariya said. “It’s become almost a good omen.”

Kariya got No. 50 just in time, with 14:24 left in a Duck season that ended a sliver shy of the playoffs.

The team actually finished tied for eighth, and Winnipeg won the tiebreaker with 36 victories to the Ducks’ 35. The loss cost the Jets home-ice advantage, and they’ll open a first-round series at Detroit on Wednesday.

“Here we are, two points away and have the opportunity to have home ice--and we can’t even qualify for the playoffs,” Wilson said. “That’s a frustrating thing.”

Toronto and Vancouver clinched the last available spots Saturday.

“Playing in the All-Star game was a real thrill, I always dreamed of that as a kid,” Kariya said. “This was great. But I would have given both to be in the playoffs.”

He didn’t seem to be looking to score early in the game, forcing a pass on a two-on-one when perhaps he should have shot.

“I don’t think Paul went in saying, ‘I’m two from 50,’ ” Wilson said. “But as soon as he scored at the end of the second period, I said I’m going to get him out there every other shift. I told the left wings, ‘You guys are going to sit down so we can give him as much a shot as we can.’ ”

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Duck Notes

Ron Wilson will coach the U.S. team in the World Championships beginning Sunday in Vienna and said he also expects to be named coach of the more prestigious World Cup team, perhaps as soon as today. “I think it’s safe to say I’m the coach,” Wilson said. The World Cup, which replaces the Canada Cup, starts in August and will include most of the NHL’s stars. Paul Kariya is expected to play for Canada in both tournaments, and Wilson said Teemu Selanne will play for Finland in the World Cup but there’s only “an outside chance” he will play in the World Championships because of sore knees. Goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov said he has agreed to play for Russia in the tournament that begins this week. . . . Goalie Guy Hebert earned a $300,000 bonus by finishing among the NHL’s top five in save percentage at .913.