Canucks Try, but They Can’t Stop Selanne

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.

Selanne dodged the Canucks’ physical play well enough to score two goals for the Mighty Ducks in a 3-3 tie, making it almost look easy before a sellout crowd of 17,174.

That’s 20 goals in 20 games, 19 goals in the last 13 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.

In the end, Selanne even swiped the spotlight from Mike Keenan, who was making his debut as Vancouver’s coach.

“He’s on a mission,” Duck Coach Pierre Page said of Selanne. “I don’t care how skilled you are, you don’t see many skilled players take their jobs as seriously as he takes his.”

By now it’s no secret that in order 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.

“Lately, last game and the game now, it’s getting worse,” Selanne said. “I think teams really want to put more attention on me. They’re going to play dirty once in a while. I try to stay cool, but if the referees don’t start calling [penalties] I don’t know what I should do.”

The San Jose Sharks didn’t rough up Selanne on Monday and wound up giving up a first-period hat trick to him.

The Montreal Canadiens then set the standard Wednesday with the rough stuff against Selanne, ending his goal-scoring streak at 11.

The Canucks followed a similar 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.

“It’s hard enough for him to get his chances, but if there’s tackling, tripping and holding . . .” Page said. “I think the rest of the skilled players in the league, the fans and the media just have to keep screaming to call the interference penalties.

“Stop putting the pressure on the referee, so he’s not embarrassed to call 28 minor penalties because some nights that’s what he could call--28 minor penalties.

“We need to review what’s going on. Let’s play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Page called for a meeting of the minds between skilled players and league officials to ensure the game stops becoming a clutch-and-grab marathon, as it did at times Friday.

“It’s like in football,” Page said. “They shouldn’t interfere with the wide receivers because all you would see are 9-6 games. That’s a dull game. Nobody wants to see that. We have to be avant-garde. We have to be innovative.”

Neither Selanne nor anyone else on the ice could break a 3-3 tie in the third period plus five minutes of overtime.

Ted Drury also scored for the Ducks, who are 1-1-5 in overtime. Alexander Mogilny, Jyrki Lumme and Brian Noonan scored for Vancouver.

All things considered, it was an encouraging start for Keenan, who replaced Tom Renney on Thursday.

“The players dealt with [the coaching change] well, they were emotionally prepared and they gave it a great effort,” Keenan said.

Mogilny, Pavel Bure and Mark Messier 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 there were lapses. For instance, Mogilny fanned on his first attempt at a clearing pass along the boards then fed his second attempt 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 blue line to set up a short-handed goal for Drury. It gave the Ducks a short-lived, 3-2, lead at 12:54.