Option 3 Is the One for Ducks

It was nothing more than a hunch. Mighty Duck Coach Ron Wilson had a fairly good one, so he turned to assistant Tim Army for advice on juggling his lines.

Nothing much was working as the Ducks trailed the Edmonton Oilers by two goals as the clock ticked down in the third period Wednesday at the Pond.

The top line of Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne and Steve Rucchin was being muzzled.

The second line of Brian Bellows, Jari Kurri and Kevin Todd had a number of chances, but couldn’t put a puck past Edmonton goaltender Curtis Joseph either.

Finally, Wilson decided on a third line of rookie Sean Pronger playing between wingers Warren Rychel and Joe Sacco.

“They weren’t a line until the last two shifts [of regulation],” Wilson said. “They didn’t have much ice time. They weren’t playing because of all the penalties we had to kill off.”

First, Pronger won a faceoff in the Oiler zone, moving the puck to Sacco, who passed to defenseman Bobby Dollas at the left point. Dollas then fired a shot that banked off the leg of Oiler defenseman Jeff Norton and into the net, cutting the Oiler lead to 3-2 with 5:32 left in regulation.

On the next shift, defenseman Jason Marshall pinched in along the right-wing boards, sending the puck to Sacco behind the net. Sacco slipped a pass out front to Pronger, who banked in the game-tying score with 2:44 left in regulation.

“Joe sent the puck out front and I just whacked at it,” Pronger said after the Ducks and Oilers tied the score, 3-3. “I know it hit someone. I don’t know if it was the goalie or what.”

It was Pronger’s fifth goal this season, but certainly his most important for the Ducks since they brought him up from Baltimore on Jan. 8.

“I’d say so,” he said. “I hadn’t scored in nine games. It was nice to chip in a goal and help the team out.”

The Ducks seemed bent on self-destruction in the second period, then needed a boost from unlikely sources to salvage a tie and move into an eighth-place tie with Calgary in the Western Conference.

“I was a little surprised to be out there,” Pronger said, “but it was nice to be out there.”

Wilson decided it was worth tossing the Oilers a changeup. Edmonton had been focused on stopping the Kariya-Selanne line. He figured perhaps they wouldn’t be expecting the grinding approach of Pronger’s line.

“I hoped maybe they would bang and crash the net,” Wilson said. “By crashing the net and doing the little things they were able to tie it up.”

Said Oiler Todd Marchant: “People always talk about Kariya and Selanne and how you have to limit their chances. You can limit their chances, but you can’t forget about the other guys.”