Ducks’ Fate Relies Heavily on Hebert

After all that mileage he logged over the last 3 1/2 months, Guy Hebert jokes that he finally had to go to the shop for some routine maintenance.

“A 64-game tuneup or something,” he said. Add some water, check the plugs, recharge the battery. Hopefully, no overhaul.

Hebert came back Wednesday after three games of rest and gave up five goals in the Mighty Ducks’ 5-5 tie in San Jose. It wasn’t his old shut-’em-down-at-two-goals performance, but Hebert passed the muster of the chief mechanic, goaltending consultant Francois Allaire.

“He’s OK. In the third period, he made some big saves,” said Allaire, who has rejoined the team to be sure Hebert and backup Mikhail Shtalenkov are ready for the playoffs. “Ninety-five percent of what Guy did in the game was great,” Allaire said. “Right now, I don’t think there’s any big problem.”

The Ducks will need Hebert’s hot hand that helped carry them during their 12-game unbeaten streak with a 1.85 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage.

Allaire’s approach is to get Hebert to “refocus” and play a simple game, adhering to the same principle as always: Position yourself so well and so efficiently that you make it look easy to stop the puck.

Allaire said Hebert’s episode of exhaustion would probably happen to any goalie under the strain of that workload. (Hebert started 42 of 43 games, and 23 in a row.) As for the timing, “I’d rather have a goalie get tired at the end of the season than at the beginning of the playoffs,” he said.

“You have to know that when you play as much as he has, every night you lose seven, eight, nine pounds,” Allaire said. “Then you have 24 hours to regain that weight. It’s a big stress on your body. You’re 175, then 172, then 168, then 175. You’re eating at different times, traveling, trying to recover all the time.

“But day after day, Guy was outstanding for four months in a row. That’s one of the longest stretches I’ve seen as a goaltending coach.”

That’s saying something, of course, since Allaire worked with Patrick Roy for many years in Montreal, including 1993-94, when Roy played in 68 games.

As for the five goals Hebert gave up against San Jose, Allaire points out that the game-tying goal deflected in off a Duck defenseman, another was on a breakaway, another on an odd-man rush.

“One more save, one more good defensive play and it’s different,” he said. “Every team has a slump defensively. We’re there now.”

It’s no coincidence that veteran Bobby Dollas isn’t there. Dollas is out until at least Wednesday because of chickenpox, and there has been a noticeable difference in the defense the last two games.

“[The difference] has been huge,” said assistant coach Walt Kyle, who handles the defense. “ ‘Dolly’ is so good defensively. So steady. So reliable. Last night they scored with 22 seconds left. ‘Dolly’ would have been out there in that situation.

“We’re anxious to get him back,” Kyle said. “But the good news is, we’ve gotten two points without him.”

That’s much the same way it went without Hebert, who missed two games while Teemu Selanne was also out because of strained muscles in his side. But Mikhail Shtalenkov came in after starting only one game since Christmas and proved ready, going 2-0-1.

Now the Ducks can finish the season knowing that if Hebert needs rest, Shtalenkov is up to the task.

“He relieved a lot of pressure on the team with his performance,” Allaire said. “Now they know Mike can play.

“It’s easy when you don’t play that long to say, ‘I’m not part of the team,’ or ‘They don’t like me.’ Mike never said a word, never complained. He acted like a professional.

“The team got seven points simply because Mikhail was ready. That’s important. . . . He played a really important role in the playoff race.”