Ducks Get Plenty of Help From Young in 4-3 Victory

Pierre Page emerged from the Mighty Duck dressing room Friday, managed a faint smile, puffed out his cheeks and said, “Oh, boy.”

He could have been speaking of Teemu Selanne, whose goal-scoring streak reached nine games Friday at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome. Or perhaps the Ducks’ 4-3 victory over the Flames in his return to Calgary.

But the subject of Page’s breathless postgame comment was Scott Young, whose overtime goal gave the Ducks their first winning streak this season.

So it’s only two games. So it’s been against Calgary and Tampa Bay, two of the weakest teams in the NHL.

So what?

“Not bad for a guy with a bad wrist, eh?” Page said of Young, who scored twice to bolster Selanne’s 13th goal in nine games and Ruslan Salei’s first NHL goal.

Young, battling tendinitis in his right wrist the past three weeks, scored the game-winner on a wide-open slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle at 3:34 of overtime.

“Steve Rucchin made a nice breakout pass and I had some breathing room,” Young said. “[The wrist] is kind of day to day. It’s probably been feeling better the last two games.

“Either that or the trainer has been taping it so tight I can’t feel it.”

Young’s second goal polished off the Flames, but the Ducks probably should have gotten the job done much earlier.

They built a 3-1 lead on goals by Selanne, Salei and Young. But Jerome Iginla, at 17:16 of the second period, and Sandy McCarthy, at 14:59 of the third, rallied the Flames with goals.

“It would have been a shame to lose or tie after having a lead so late in the third period,” Young said. “But winning a game like this will have an impact on the team’s confidence. It’s a real character-builder.”

As usual, Selanne got the Ducks started in the right direction. His 14th goal this season, on a breakaway at the 1:59 mark of the second period, seemed almost effortless.

Rookie center Matt Cullen triggered Selanne’s breakaway with a pass from the right wing.

“Did you see that pass to Selanne on the breakaway?” asked Page, who coached the Flames for two seasons before bolting for Anaheim on Aug. 9.

Selanne, who hustled ahead of a pack of slower Calgary defenders, accepted Cullen’s pass. He then made one fake before lifting a backhander over rookie goalie Tyler Moss to match a nine-game streak during his 76-goal rookie season of 1992-93.

Only Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux (11 and 12 games) and the Kings’ Luc Robitaille (10 games) have had longer streaks since Selanne joined the league. Their streaks also were in 1992-93.

Salei, a second-year defenseman, scored his first goal about 10 minutes later, giving the Ducks a 2-1 lead at the 10:30 mark. Moss was screened by a number of players and didn’t appear to see Salei’s shot from the left point.

“There were a lot of guys in front of the net, but I saw the red light behind the net go on and I went, ‘Wow, I got it,’ ” Salei said.

The contributions of players such as Cullen and Salei came as encouraging news to the Ducks, dismissed last season as merely a one-line team. This season without unsigned free agent Paul Kariya, they have been called a one-player team.

And perhaps rightfully so, but where would the Ducks be without Selanne?

“It’s every night,” Page said of Selanne’s contributions. “These guys have seen it every night. We went through some tough times early on, but he’s really taken it upon himself to lead us.”

After 16 games without Kariya, the Ducks are 7-5-4 and two points out of first place in the Pacific Division.

They were 3-10-3 after 16 games last season--including 11 without Kariya, who missed the season’s start because of an abdominal injury.

Asked if was leaving a ticket for Kariya, who has been staying at his parents’ home in suburban North Vancouver, for tonight’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, Selanne said:

“No, he doesn’t want to come to the game. He wants to watch it on TV. He can’t come.”