Tkachuk Always Ready to Rumble

Teemu Selanne was off. Puck on his stick, empty net ahead of him.

Then Keith Tkachuk’s stick came flying at him. Selanne kept going, scoring his 46th goal to wrap up a 3-0 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Sunday.

Then Tkachuk came flying at him.

What followed was more WWF than NHL.

Tkachuk tackled Selanne. Duck defenseman Kevin Haller tangled with Tkachuk. Ted Drury and Jeremy Roenick went at it. Jamie Pushor and Rick Tocchet had a go. Don King should have been lucky enough to hold the rights.

A whopping 52 penalty minutes later, they could finally play out the last 48 seconds.

“He’s an emotional guy,” Roenick said. “I think he was sending a message.”

What, he couldn’t do it with e-mail?

“It lets people know when you play us, it’s going to be a physical game,” Roenick said, “Even if you win, you’re going to take a bunch of licks.”

The Ducks took some and smiled.

They did, after all, get the victory to move back into fifth place in the Western Conference with the playoffs a little more than a week a way. Their first-round opponent would be, of course, Phoenix.

Round 2?

Of course, the even-tempered Selanne said he didn’t hold a grudge, not even after being used first for target practice and then as a tackling dummy.

“I was just so excited to score, I didn’t know it was [Tkachuk],” Selanne said. “Then all that wrestling stuff started.”

That the Ducks got the better of the brawls merely made them more satisfied.

“They got the win and got all pumped up,” Tocchet said. “We got pumped up, too. But they were two for two. We were one for two.”

This is hardly virgin territory for these two teams.

Tkachuk--and the rest of the Coyotes--have long expressed their dislike for the Ducks. It stems, Roenick said, from losing a seven-game playoff series in 1997.

Earlier this season, Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei was their top villain, after he tripped Daniel Briere in an exhibition game. Briere suffered a concussion and his teammates vowed revenge.

Salei, though, was not on the docket Sunday.

“It was a slow night for me,” Salei said. “Nobody tried to kill me.”

This wasn’t even new stuff for Tkachuk. He went after the Ducks’ Mark Janssens near the end of Game 3 in 1997.

Stability, apparently, is not Tkachuk’s strong point. Even his teammates seem to view him as a loose cannon.

“He’s kind of a crazy guy,” Roenick said. “Sometimes we don’t even know what he’s going to do. That’s what makes him dangerous.”

Not that it worries him or Coach Jim Schoenfeld, who had no opinion of Tkachuk’s wild finish Sunday.

“You’ll have to ask him about that,” Schoenfeld said.

That was kind of hard. Tkachuk stuck around long enough to collect his two-minute roughing penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct. Then it was out the door and off to the airport, before the dressing room doors were even opened.

It was a bit out of character for a guy who gets as much pleasure from talking tough as he does from acting tough.

“He was a little frustrated,” Tocchet said.

The first hint was tossing the stick, right?

“We have been shut out two of the last three games,” Tocchet said. “That’s not the best way to head into the playoffs. I’m sure he will be fine at practice tomorrow. He doesn’t take these things to heart.”

Lucky thing. His teammates need a rest.

“I looked in the mirror and said, ‘Where did that come from?’ ” said Tocchet, talking about the large welt under his right eye.

You can rule out Tkachuk. . . .probably.