Havelid Gives Defense a Lift

He’s not the fastest defenseman on the Mighty Duck roster. Nor is he the biggest or most experienced player on the blue line.

But Niclas Havelid has been their best defenseman for the last three weeks, according to Coach Craig Hartsburg.

The Ducks hoped Havelid would bolster their defense, which is why they took a chance on the 26-year-old Swede when they picked him in the third round of last summer’s draft.

Havelid, who had 10 goals and 22 points in 50 games for Malmo in the Swedish League last season, has not disappointed the Ducks. He has one goal, three points and a plus/minus rating of plus six in his rookie season.

“He keeps getting better and better,” Hartsburg said.

Oleg Tverdovsky, who played with Havelid in Sunday’s 4-1 romp over the expansion Atlanta Thrashers, offered this opinion of his defense partner:

“He’s a great skater. He’s not a huge guy. He’s strong on his skates. He wins his one-on-one battles because he’s strong on his skates.

“I think he’s improved a lot.”

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Right wing Teemu Selanne has become a big fan of the NHL’s two-referee system, which has been adopted for all games next season.

Selanne hopes it will bring about a crackdown on the holding and hooking currently in vogue around the league.

“Right now, there is so much holding,” he said. “It’s so frustrating. The defenseman puts his stick between your legs and holds, holds, holds. The refs have to start calling these things.

“I still can’t believe there are so many games with only one ref.”

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The Ducks gave up a first-period power-play goal in Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Anaheim, which ended their streak of 19 consecutive penalty kills.

But the Ducks’ penalty-killing unit began another streak by shutting down the Avalanche twice Friday, then blanking the Atlanta Thrashers in three short-handed situations Sunday.

“The penalty kill is going in the right direction,” left wing Paul Kariya said. “Like everything else, we have to keep working on it. We can’t be complacent.”

Tonight

at Colorado, 7

ESPN2, Fox Sports Net 2

* Site--Pepsi Center.

* Radio--XTRA (690).

* Records--Ducks 14-13-4-1, Avalanche 15-13-3-1.

* Record vs. Avalanche--0-1.

* Update--Defenseman Kevin Haller, out since Nov. 15 because of a sprained left knee, may play tonight. This is the Ducks’ first visit to the new downtown Denver arena. This is Colorado’s 12th home game. The Avalanche has played 20 of its first 31 games this season on the road, going 8-9-3. Colorado’s 3-2 overtime victory Sunday over the Vancouver Canucks enabled goalie Patrick Roy to pass Tony Esposito for third on the NHL’s career victory list with 424. Roy made 24 saves in Friday’s victory over the Ducks.