After Concussion, Hebert Draws a Blank

Getting conked on the head knocked Mighty Duck goalie Guy Hebert out of the lineup for two games, but it couldn’t knock him off his stride.

Hebert returned Friday after a 10-day layoff because of a concussion and a break in the Ducks’ schedule but still shut out Calgary, 7-0, in front of 17,084 at the Pond.

Nothing short of injury seems capable of stopping the Ducks’ Paul Kariya, who scored two goals and assisted on three others for a career-high five-point game. He has 30 points in only 20 games this season, and might reach 100 points despite already missing 13 games, 11 because of a lingering abdominal injury and two more because of a concussion.

It was a giddy night for the Ducks, who set club records by scoring three short-handed goals as well as winning by seven goals, and tied a club-record by scoring seven.

Hebert made 39 saves for his 12th NHL shutout. Most impressively, the shutout was his third in the last nine games, a hot streak that wasn’t ended by the concussion he suffered Dec. 9 when Boston’s Troy Mallette accidentally hit him in the head with his stick.

With the victory, the Ducks leapfrogged the Kings in the Western Conference standings and improved to .500 at home for the first time this season.

After a disastrous 1-9-2 start, they have climbed back to four games below .500 overall at 12-16-5.

Kariya turned the game in the Ducks’ direction at a crucial moment in the first period. Forward Ted Drury had been thrown out of the game and the Ducks were trying to kill a five-minute Calgary power play after Drury was called for boarding Jamie Allison, who required stitches for a deep cut below his left eye and didn’t return.

The Ducks’ Steve Rucchin won a faceoff, sending the puck skittering to mid-ice, and Kariya chased it down just over the blue line, sweeping in on a spectacular breakaway to beat Trevor Kidd with a backhand shot for a 1-0 lead at 9:08. Kariya’s two goals give him 12 in 20 games this season and points in all but four of the games in which he has played.

His goal turned things the Ducks’ way, and they held off the rest of the Calgary power play and led, 2-0, at the end of the period after right wing Joe Sacco stripped the puck from defenseman Todd Simpson in the Flames’ end and put it into the net off of Kidd.

That was the Ducks’ last even-strength goal until 4:48 into the third period, when defenseman Dmitri Mironov made the score 5-0 with his third goal in the last two games. Teemu Selanne extended his point streak to nine games with an assist on the goal.

The parade of short-handed goals had continued in the second, when Sacco scored his second goal of the game and seventh of the season 1:58 into the period on a short-handed breakaway started by Darren Van Impe’s terrific lead pass.

The two-goal game was Sacco’s first since Feb. 1, 1995, and was a good signal for the Ducks, since he is known for scoring in spurts.

Kariya set up yet another short-handed goal later in the second when he harassed defenseman Yves Racine on the forecheck, lifting his stick and then checking him into the boards to free the puck, which he threw to Steve Rucchin, who made it 4-0.

The Ducks got three in the final period--from Mironov, Kariya and Selanne, his 18th of the season.