Canucks Awaken, Put Ducks to Sleep

The home team had been in such in a low-spirited spiral that a Vancouver newspaper last week urged the Canucks to lose some teeth and win some games.

Mighty Duck fans probably don’t care if the Ducks keep their teeth, but they would like them to win some games--and trade for a defenseman.

An invigorated Vancouver team beat the Ducks, 4-2, Saturday night at GM Place after losing five of its last six games.

The Ducks lost for the fifth time in seven games, and two more weeks with this lineup might be disastrous. They fell to four points out of a playoff spot Saturday, a night when three of their rivals won, including the Canucks.

Because of injuries to veterans, there were six rookies in the Duck lineup Saturday, including defensemen Dan Trebil and Ruslan Salei, who had only 26 games of NHL experience between them. And it might have been seven rookies, but defenseman Jason Marshall was been able to play, despite a sore thumb.

Not only the defensemen--and not only the rookies--were exposed against the Canucks. Most of the team seemed discombobulated, and the Ducks had a hard time just connecting on passes in the first period.

That the score was only 2-0 after 20 minutes--and not something like 5-0--was a compliment to goalie Guy Hebert, who had robbed Pavel Bure, Mike Sillinger and Alexander Mogilny.

By the time the score was 4-1, less than halfway through the second period, Coach Ron Wilson presented Hebert with what can best be described as a mercy pull. Hebert had faced 27 shots in 29 minutes 29 seconds, and Wilson sent Mikhail Shtalenkov in, giving Hebert some rest and Shtalenkov some work. Shtalenkov didn’t allow a goal over the final 1 1/2 periods.

The Canucks apparently took all the criticism from Coach Tom Renney and the local papers to heart, coming out with purposeful hits from the first shift.

Russ Courtnall, who had only six goals after scoring 26 last season, got the first goal, scoring from the right wing with the Canucks on a counterattack.

Martin Gelinas scored short-handed for Vancouver’s second goal, dashing in behind all four Ducks to take a pass from Courtnall that was tipped by the Ducks’ Brian Bellows. It was the 10th time this season a team has scored against the Ducks’ power play. Only Calgary has given up more short-handed goals, 14.

Teemu Selanne’s 33rd goal of the season cut the score to a deceptively close 2-1 at 3:59 of the second period. He redirected a power play shot by Darren Van Impe.

Jari Kurri and Garry Valk had good chances in the next couple of minutes, but neither came through, and that was about as close as the Ducks came to tying the score.

Mike Ridley made it 3-1 when he deftly backhanded a rebound behind his back and into the net as he skated past a tangle in front of the Duck crease at 6:42 of the second.

Jyrki Lumme made it 4-1 less than three minutes later when he skated in on Hebert around Dmitri Mironov on a power play while Mironov made a futile attempt to hook him.

Paul Kariya hit the post later in the period and then scored his 26th goal of the season with 15 seconds left in the second.

It was only the second time this season the Ducks have lost when Kariya and Selanne both scored. The other was only last week, a 4-2 loss in Toronto.

The third period was even--neither team scored--but it was academic. Vancouver’s victory was its third against the Ducks in four games this season.