Ducks Are Equal to the Task, 2-2

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.

OK, so the end result was merely a morale-building 2-2 tie. But even a tie is cathartic these days in Anaheim. The 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 made do as best as possible.

Tomas Sandstrom scored the 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.

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.

Hebert, 0-2-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average in three starts, seemed pleased before the game to have the night off.

“Sure, you want to play every night,” he said. “I feel fresh. I don’t feel tired. When you feel good, you want to keep playing. We’ll wait and see what happens. I’m not going to jump up and down and scream, ‘Why aren’t I playing tonight?’ ”

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.

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.

Philadelphia, which seemed to be skating through mud the first 40 minutes, failed to click on two power-play chances in the second period. The Flyers seemed slow and out of sync when at even strength too.

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.

But as is the case with Kariya and the Ducks, the Flyers seem to struggle when Lindros doesn’t score goals or set them up.

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.

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

Philadelphia had 20 shots on goal through 40 minutes, but it was nothing Shtalenkov couldn’t handle. Most of the shots were from long distance and he handled them with ease.

The Ducks also won lots of little battles, along the boards and down the wings and were rewarded with a second-period lead--slight though it was.

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 traps 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.

But it was Lindros who had the best scoring opportunity in the first period, tipping the puck away from defenseman David Karpa at the blue line and racing alone toward the net. But Shtalenkov stacked his pads and smothered Lindros’ point-blank shot with about three minutes left in the period.