Selanne Beats Up Canucks With Two Goals in 3-3 Tie

The Vancouver Canucks hooked him, tripped him, speared him and slugged him. Now imagine what Teemu Selanne might have accomplished Friday at the Pond if they hadn’t.

Dodging the Canucks’ physical play against him, Selanne still managed to score two goals for the Mighty Ducks in a 3-3 tie and made it almost look easy before a sellout crowd of 17,174.

That’s 20 goals in 20 games and back on an 82-goal pace for the season for Selanne. He’s also two goals ahead of Philadelphia’s John LeClair for the NHL lead.

What’s more, Selanne moved ahead of the pace of his rookie-record 76-goal season in 1992-93. He didn’t score his 20th goal that season until his 27th game with the Winnipeg Jets.

By now it’s no secret that to stop the Ducks opponents must stop Selanne.

And to stop Selanne teams must resort to excessive force. Playing a finesse game simply doesn’t work.

The San Jose Sharks gave that a shot Mondy, but wound up giving up a first-period hat trick to Selanne.

The Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday set the standard with the rough stuff against Selanne and ended his goal-scoring streak at 11. By now a copy of that videotape has no doubt been circulated around the league.

The Canucks followed a similar game plan, but couldn’t shut down Selanne entirely. He wriggled loose for goals in the first and second periods and had several other quality scoring chances.

But neither the Ducks nor Canucks could break a 3-3 tie in the final period plus five minutes of overtime.

In the end, the Canucks under new Coach Mike Keenan looked a great deal like the Canucks under Tom Renney. Their skill was evident, but so were their shortcomings.

Pavel Bure, Mark Messier and Alexander Mogilny seemed to turn each possession of the puck into highlight reel material.

They clicked for the first Vancouver goal--scored by Mogilny with assists to Messier and Bure at the 11:30 mark of the first period. Messier also assisted on the Canucks’ second goal.

But the Canucks’ attention span Friday still seemed too short to satisfy their demanding coach in his first game. They played with varying degrees of intensity and effectiveness.

For instance, Mogilny fanned on his first attempt at a clearing pass along the boards and then fed his second try to Selanne. Given Selanne’s torrid goal scoring since Oct. 21, it proved to be a terrible mistake.

Selanne swept in alone against Vancouver goaltender Kirk McLean, then placed a slicing backhander over his right shoulder to tie the score, 2-2, at 9:45 of the second period.

Next, the Canucks gave up the puck at their own blue line to set up a short-handed goal for Duck grinder Ted Drury. It gave the Ducks a short-lived, 3-2, lead at 12:54.

Vancouver’s Brian Noonan--fortunate or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it, to have Keenan as his coach for the fourth time in his career--scored the equalizer at 14:04.

And the Ducks and Canucks headed to the third period tied, 3-3.

There was little to separate the teams after the first period, except perhaps a fortunate bounce for the Canucks. After all, the Ducks could have, should have escaped the first 20 minutes with nothing worse than a 1-1 tie.

But Tomas Sandstrom took a roughing penalty in the period’s final minute, then Ruslan Salei accidentally kicked a rebound between Duck goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov’s legs and into the net.

The goal was credited to Jyrki Lumme, whose shot from the blue line Shtalenkov easily saved. But the puck hit Salei’s skate before Shtalenkov could smother the rebound with his glove and the Canucks had a 2-1 lead despite being outshot, 15-10, in the first period.

Mogilny had evened the score for the Canucks, converting on a breakaway at the 11:30 mark for his first goal of the season. He signed a new four-year, $17.2-million contract last week after sitting out the season’s first five weeks.

Selanne’s first goal of the game gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at the 8:37 mark. He appeared almost casual on the play, stopping Steve Rucchin’s cross-ice pass with his left skate to gain control of the puck. He then beat a helpless McLean with a shot high into the net.