Ducks Definitely Up to Challenge

The Colorado Avalanche got kicked from one end of the Pepsi Center to the other before finally fighting a battle it could win Wednesday against the Mighty Ducks.

The Avalanche challenged the legality of the sticks of winger Teemu Selanne and goaltender Dominic Roussel midway through the third period, winning on both counts and injecting some intrigue into what was a one-sided game.

The Avalanche’s third-period rally didn’t get far. Selanne put the game out of reach with a wicked blast past goalie Patrick Roy with 5:30 left as the Ducks held on for a 4-2 victory.

With Colorado down, 3-1, referees Mark Faucette and Greg Kimmerly nabbed Selanne for having too much curve on the blade of his stick at 8:58 of the final period.

When the power play seemed headed nowhere, the Avalanche asked for a measurement of Roussel’s stick at 10:04. Roussel’s stick was found to be too wide at the blade.

Colorado scored on the ensuing two-man advantage, which was really a three-man advantage when defenseman Ruslan Salei broke his stick. Sandis Ozolinsh’s goal at 10:45 narrowed the Duck lead to 3-2.

Selanne then got the last laugh, scoring his 14th goal of the season and making the Ducks winners in their fourth consecutive road game.

“What a sweet one,” Selanne said. “This game was in our hands all the way. Those guys [Colorado] couldn’t do anything else. We knew those guys weren’t going to beat us. We had no problems with them.”

Selanne believed his stick would have been legal if the referees removed some tape from the blade. They would not, however.

Roussel asked his stick manufacturer several years ago to make sure his sticks were legal. He said it had been a while since he measured them.

“I was surprised,” he said after improving his record to 4-1-1. “I’ll check all my sticks from now on.”

In the end, about all Colorado got right was the measurements. But even those victories were debatable at game’s end.

“It’s our team’s fault for having the illegal sticks,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “But we’re going to ask the league to investigate this building. Maybe we cheated, but I question how they knew we cheated.”

The Ducks’ sticks were stored after the morning skate in an open area near a door to the Avalanche dressing room. Hartsburg said the Ducks had no way to lock the door and keep out any snoops looking for illegal sticks while the Ducks were at their hotel Wednesday afternoon.

“Let this be a lesson for the next team that comes in here,” Hartsburg said. “I don’t blame [Colorado]. They had nothing going up until then. Nothing.”

The stick measurements overshadowed one of the Ducks’ best all-around performances this season. They carried the play to the Avalanche for most of the first two periods, building a 3-1 lead and holding a 24-13 edge in shots on goal.

Jeff Nielsen had two goals and Ted Donato one.

Chris Drury scored the first Colorado goal, giving the Avalanche a brief 1-1 tie early in the second period. Nielsen scored the go-ahead goal at 2:26 of the second and the Ducks regained control.

“It was one of those nights when the puck was following me around,” Nielsen said of his second career two-goal game. “It was sweet.”

In many ways the game resembled the Ducks’ 4-1 victory Sunday over the expansion Atlanta Thrashers. As in Sunday’s game, the Ducks kept the puck in the attacking zone for such lengthy stretches it seemed they were on the power play.

But that was the Avalanche they were thumping, one of the league’s top teams. The Ducks were not working over a collection of rookies and castoffs.

Two plays early in the game set the tone.

First, Roussel gave a hard-charging Milan Hejduk nothing to shoot at on a breakaway 1:17 into the game.

Moments later, Mike Leclerc rocked Colorado’s Chris Dingman with a tough but legal check in the Avalanche’s end of the ice.