Baumgartner Gets the Nod on Defense

The Ducks on Saturday tried out a new defenseman who happened to be an old defenseman--Ken Baumgartner.

“It has been five years and 250 games since I played defense regularly,” said Baumgartner, normally a fourth-line winger. “But I played five years and 250 games in this league as a defenseman, and all my minor league hockey.”

Duck Coach Ron Wilson scratched rookies Nikolai Tsulygin and Ruslan Salei, leaving him with only five regular defensemen, and added forward Roman Oksiuta to the lineup after scratching him 15 games in a a row.

“I wanted to get Oksiuta in there. It had been a long time since he played,” Wilson said. “We tried Baumgartner on defense. . . . He made a couple of mistakes, but I thought he played pretty well.”

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Defenseman Bobby Dollas appeared in his 118th consecutive game, tying Paul Kariya’s club record. . . . Winger Brian Bellows missed part of the first period after being cut in the face but returned at the start of the second period.