Ducks Are Up to Task This Time

The Legion of Doom faced off against the Legion of Gloom on Wednesday at the Pond. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Philadelphia Flyers’ expected rout over the goal-starved Mighty Ducks.

Instead of knuckling under, the Ducks gave their beleaguered fans a treat while giving the Flyers fits. The end result was merely a morale-building, 2-2, tie. But even a tie is cathartic these days in Anaheim.

Duck fans, so unhappy about the absence of unsigned free agent Paul Kariya, seemed energized and upbeat Wednesday. By game’s end, not one, “We want Paul” chant could be heard from the announced crowd of 17,121.

To be sure, the Ducks could have used the all-star left wing’s speed and offensive skills against the physical Flyers. But with Kariya unsigned and at home in Vancouver, the Ducks (1-2-2) made do.

Tomas Sandstrom scored the game-tying goal, blasting a rising slap shot over a diving Joel Otto and past goaltender Ron Hextall with the Ducks on a two-man advantage at the 15:28 mark of the third period.

“He had to get a goal out of that,” Sandstrom said. “With a five-on-three you have to have good scoring chances and we did. I saw there was no one in front. It was pretty open from that far side.”

Backup goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov started in place of Guy Hebert as Coach Pierre Page stuck to his training camp vow to spread the workload more evenly.

Shtalenkov responded with his customary unflappable performance. But he had no chance on either Philadelphia goal, but particularly Eric Lindros’ blistering shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead at 9:12 of the third period.

John LeClair had tied the score with a power-play goal at the 3:51 mark, sneaking behind the Duck defense to swat home a cross-ice pass from Paul Coffey with the Flyers on the power play.

Until the Flyers’ seized the lead, there were encouraging signs all around the ice for the Ducks, not the least of which was the end of their scoring drought of 101 minutes 42 seconds.

“Tonight, you saw the team that represents what we want to do,” Page said.

The grinding line of Warren Rychel, Mark Janssens and Ted Drury managed to put the puck behind Hextall at 5:14 of the second period. Drury dumped the puck into the right corner, Janssens beat the defense to it, whipped a pass into the slot and Rychel tapped it into the net for a 1-0 Duck lead.

It was Rychel’s first goal since Feb. 28 against the Washington Capitals, a span of 21 games.

“This was probably our hardest-played game so far, including the exhibitions,” Page said. “You could really see the fire and the passion in our players’ eyes. These points don’t come easy, do they?”

Lindros, coping with flu-like symptoms that forced him to miss the morning skate, gave the Flyers several impressive jolts of energy. He crushed Drury with a check along the boards, stealing the puck and triggering a scoring chance.

“We played well in the third period,” Lindros said. “I don’t know what we were thinking about the first two periods.”

Like Kariya and the Ducks, the Flyers seem to struggle when Lindros doesn’t score goals or set them up and he was essentially neutralized in the first two periods.

Unlike Kariya, Lindros sometimes resorts to chippy play--such as his brutal blindside elbow to the back of defenseman Dmitri Mironov’s head late in regulation time.

Several Ducks tried to get at Lindros, but none were successful. Mironov left the ice for several minutes, but returned to finish the game.

Philadelphia’s style of play, more than any significant changes Page made in the wake of Monday’s 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins, aided the Ducks. Freed from the shackles of the neutral-zone trap employed by the Bruins, the Ducks got off to a strong start.

The Flyers’ willingness to play a higher-tempo game than the Bruins or Ottawa Senators, Friday’s defensive-minded opponent, enabled the Ducks to find a bit more room to skate.

“They keep you honest,” Page said of the Flyers. “They hit you. They make you realize the game has started. It doesn’t take 12 minutes to realize the game’s started. They make you accountable.

“Our guys really responded to that.”