Ducks Are Down to Final Chance

Down but defiant, the Mighty Ducks vowed Monday to prolong their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 tonight at the Arrowhead Pond.

Or to be more precise, they hoped to make it as tough as possible on the Red Wings. Down three games to none in this best-of-seven series, no one was bold enough to predict a victory.

“I look at all the teams in contention [for the Stanley Cup championship] and they have the most depth and the most accomplished coach,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said of the Red Wings and Coach Scotty Bowman. “It’s quite a mixture they’ve got. But it’s our job to make it tough on them. We want to show our pride. A victory would do a lot for us.”

The outlook is bleak for the Ducks, however.

They have been outscored, 14-6. They have had exactly two leads--1-0 early in Game 1 and 2-1 at the end of the first period in Game 3.

The Duck defensemen have struggled to keep Detroit’s Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan away from goalie Guy Hebert. Yzerman has five goals in the series and Shanahan has two, and three assists.

Detroit’s veteran defensemen Chris Chelios and Nicklas Lidstrom have muzzled Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya, the NHL’s second- and third-leading scorers in the regular season.

The Ducks have taken foolish penalties--none as ill-timed as Stu Grimson’s five-minute major for cross-checking Detroit’s Kris Draper in the neck Sunday. Grimson was suspended for Game 4.

The Red Wings have capitalized, scoring six power-play goals in 21 chances with the man advantage.

Red Wing goaltender Chris Osgood has outplayed Guy Hebert, who hasn’t been as sharp in the playoffs as he was during the regular season.

All of which leads many to believe the series will end tonight.

But the Ducks gave no concession speeches Monday.

“I think our guys have showed a lot of pride,” Hartsburg said. “They want to go out battling and fighting. If we do go out, we want to make it tough on Detroit.”

Hartsburg continued to single out Kariya for praise, pointing to the Duck captain’s willingness to continue the fight when all seems lost. “Not many teams have a young guy like that, who’s willing to pay the price,” Hartsburg said of Kariya, who was perhaps the best player on the ice Sunday, despite failing to record a point in the Ducks’ 4-2 loss.

On Sunday, Hartsburg said of Kariya, “One thing I’ve learned in the playoffs is how competitive and how much of a leader Paul Kariya is. He has been unbelievable. If anybody [on the Ducks] needs to look somewhere [for inspiration], Paul is where they should start looking.”

Kariya figures he’s learning on the job. He believes he and the Ducks will be better next season for having gone through this series, one-sided though it might be.

“I wouldn’t have gotten to this level if I weren’t a good learner,” Kariya said. “If you look to where we started at the start of the year, we’ve all come a long way. We had a little blip in the organization last year, but we’re back on track.”

That’s a rather large consolation prize for the Ducks as they prepare to exit the playoffs for the second time in three seasons against the Red Wings.

“Oddly enough, I was thinking about this the other day,” Hebert said. “We’ve made some huge strides to get back to where we were two years ago. We sort of had to start from scratch again and I think the guys are proud of what we’ve done. We’ve grown as a team. Right now, the one thing we’re really lacking is a lot of experience.”

Hebert believes there is no shame in losing the series to Detroit. “We’re playing the best team in the league,” he said. “We haven’t played as well as we could have, but maybe it will give management some ideas [for off-season moves].”