Penguins Storm the Mighty Ducks

So was that Mike O’Neill’s fantasy or his nightmare-come-true?

Called up from the Long Beach Ice Dogs on short notice because of Mighty Duck goalie Guy Hebert’s mild concussion, O’Neill didn’t figure to get into the Ducks’ game against Pittsburgh Wednesday.

He ended up in the thick of it, watching Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr bear down on him in the Penguins’ 7-3 victory in front of 17,174 at the Pond.

The good news for O’Neill was he was back in the big leagues for a night.

The bad news was it was against Lemieux and Jagr. And if that wasn’t enough to cause an anxiety attack, he ended up frantically trying to extricate his goalie stick from the webbing of the net after it snagged for a few moments of the third period--luckily not while the action was in his end.

“It’s tough coming in against a team with so many superstars,” O’Neill said. “I felt prepared to play. They’re just very dangerous around the net. They make plays you don’t see. Or you see them, but don’t think they’re possible.”

The game marked another solid performance for Pittsburgh, a remarkable turnaround team that has climbed back to .500 at 13-13-3 with a 7-0-2 streak after winning only six of its first 20 games.

Lemieux had two goals and an assist Wednesday, marking his first two-goal game of the season, and Petr Nedved also scored twice. Worth noting was that Jaromir Jagr didn’t have a goal, ending his goal-scoring streak at nine games, the longest in the NHL this season. Jagr has 29 goals in 29 games, which makes the math easy enough: At the moment, he is on an 82-goal pace. Jagr contributed two assists, extending his point streak to 12 games.

Obviously, that’s not the kind of talent O’Neill, 29, sees in the International Hockey League. He has played in the NHL before--but not since the 1993-94 season.

Instead of sitting rinkside as the emergency backup to backup Mikhail Shtalenkov, O’Neill ended up in the game when Coach Ron Wilson pulled Shtalenkov 8:44 into the second period after Pittsburgh scored its fourth goal.

“[Shtalenkov] was struggling so I decided to shake things up and put Mike O’Neill in,” Wilson said. “Behind the blue line, we struggled a little bit. Five games in seven nights, cross-country, it wears on you. Every little mistake, they capitalized on. They have such great finishers.”

The Ducks have developed a bad habit of blowing leads lately, and their 2-1 lead after the first went out the window, too.

Lemieux scored the game’s first goal, his 14th of the season. But Paul Kariya and Jari Kurri put the Ducks ahead after one period.

Only 27 seconds into the second period, former Duck Alex Hicks scored to tie the score, 2-2, with his fourth goal of the season--and his second in less than a week against the Ducks, who traded him to Pittsburgh last month.

Hicks added a little extra zest to his celebration, and on the Duck bench, Wilson saw another lead become history.

Kevin Hatcher made the score 3-2 at the 6:16 mark and Petr Nedved made it 4-2 with the Penguins’ third goal of the period of 8:44, and Wilson made the switch.

Hicks also helped set up Nedved’s goal, if only by accident, when he was cut in the face by Duck defenseman Bobby Dollas’ ill-advised high-stick. Dollas was given a double-minor and Pittsburgh scored on the power play.

Wilson hoped O’Neill might change the momentum, but Pittsburgh kept rolling, getting a goal from Joe Dziedzic, another from Lemieux--his 15th of the season--and another from Nedved, his 16th.

The Ducks got only one more goal--Brian Bellows’ second as a Duck. Teemu Selanne was temporarily credited with the goal in a scoring change that was reversed after the game. That goal made the score 4-3 in the second period, but Pittsburgh extended the lead to two goals before the period was over.

The loss was the Ducks’ second in three games after losing only once during an eight-game stretch. Pittsburgh has made it back to .500, but for the Ducks (10-16-5), there are still six more losses to make up.