Ducks Compete Using One-Third Power

It was a rip-off for 40 minutes, plain and simple. The Mighty Ducks took good money from an announced 16,113 fans and gave them nothing in return Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond.

But in the final period plus overtime, Paul Kariya, Steve Rucchin and Teemu Selanne electrified the crowd and their teammates, enabling the Ducks to rally for a 2-2 tie against the Phoenix Coyotes.

There are good ties, bad ties and ugly ties. This one was a fortunate tie.

“We weren’t ready to start the game,” Kariya said. “We had a horrible warmup, and we’re not the type of team that can just put on our skates and play. We have to be ready to play 82 games a year and we weren’t ready tonight.”

Indeed, the Ducks appeared to have set their clocks back two hours instead of just one Sunday morning.

Or perhaps they all caught the same flu-like symptoms that have gripped Kariya for the last few days.

Whatever the reason, the Ducks had a sputtering start and didn’t get moving smoothly until after the second period.

“We played a good 20 minutes and got a point out of it,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “But you don’t get rewarded for playing only 20 minutes in this league.”

In the end, the Kariya-Rucchin-Selanne line outworked the Coyotes in the third period and in overtime and the Ducks extended their unbeaten streak to three games (2-0-1) after losing three to start the season.

“As the game wore on, Selanne and Kariya became more of a handful for us,” Phoenix Coach Jim Schoenfeld said. “When they were on the ice, we had a hard time containing them. Especially in the third period, every time they were on the ice, it seemed they were dominating the play.”

To be sure, the end was far different from the start.

Phoenix defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky sneaked behind the Ducks to score the Coyotes’ first goal 51 seconds into the game.

“It was something we worked on [defending] all week,” Duck goaltender Guy Hebert said.

Left wing Keith Tkachuk then gave the Coyotes a 2-0 lead at 6:23 of the second period, jamming in a rebound at the right goal post.

Even enforcer Jim McKenzie, a former Coyote, could not lift the Ducks from their doldrums. McKenzie belted Gerald Diduck, Teppo Numminen (twice) and Mike Sullivan in a 10-second frenzy of tough checks.

But McKenzie was sent to the penalty box for charging Sullivan at 16:43 of the first period, destroying any momentum his physical play might have given the Ducks.

Strong penalty-killing and superb goaltending from Hebert kept the Ducks in the game for the first two periods. And slowly but surely, the Ducks began to take control in the third.

Kariya struck first, setting up Selanne for the Ducks’ first goal at 8:22 of the third period. Kariya swiped a loose puck in the neutral zone, spied Selanne at the blue line, then flipped the puck past Diduck and Numminen.

Selanne caught up to the pass and unleashed a blistering slap shot that beat Nikolai Khabibulin to the glove side for his third goal of the season.

Seven minutes later, Kariya set up the game-tying goal by firing a point-blank shot off the right post.

Selanne picked up the rebound and moved swiftly around the net for a wraparound try at the left post.

Khabibulin thwarted Selanne, but couldn’t stop Rucchin from scoring on a rebound from the slot.

The Ducks carried the play to the Coyotes for the rest of regulation and into the five-minute overtime. Duck center Travis Green couldn’t convert on two shots from close range in overtime, however.

Those were not the only noteworthy plays of the game’s final moments.

Tkachuk conked Duck right wing Tomas Sandstrom over the head with his stick with 3:41 left in regulation. Referee Rob Shick apparently didn’t see the play and did not penalize Tkachuk. Sandstrom said he was unhurt and shrugged off the play at game’s end.

“I kind of had my stick on him and checked him from behind,” Sandstrom said. “Sometimes it’s tough for the referee to see what happens behind the play. Things like that happen.”

Hartsburg said he plans to ask the league to review the videotape in the hope that Tkachuk will be suspended.