Chelios Fires Up Kariya, Ducks

The Mighty Ducks defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-0, ending a three-game losing streak and a five-game winless streak Wednesday in front of a crowd of 15,254 at the Arrowhead Pond.

So much for the bookkeeping.

Now, for the good stuff, the rough stuff, the cheap shots and the snarls exchanged between Duck captain Paul Kariya and Chris Chelios, his Chicago counterpart and frequent tormentor.

It took awhile, but they went at it again Wednesday.

Good thing, too.

If it weren’t for Kariya versus Chelios, the Ducks versus Blackhawks on Wednesday would have been just another dull February game between two struggling teams.

Instead, the teams put on another lively show with the Ducks winning for the third time in four games against the Blackhawks.

You will recall that it was Gary Suter’s cross check last Feb. 1 that sidelined Kariya for last season’s final 28 games because of post-concussion syndrome. But it was Chelios’ rough play in earlier games last season that foreshadowed Suter’s hit on Kariya.

Remember, too, it was Chelios’ unkind comments later that sparked more bad blood between the teams.

Wednesday, Chelios played his usual hard-nosed game against Kariya, badgering him at every turn with play that often bordered on dirty. That’s Chelios’ method of operation, so Kariya ought to be used to it by now.

“That’s Chris. He plays with all his heart,” said Coach Craig Hartsburg, who coached Chelios for three seasons before the Blackhawks fired the coach and the Ducks hired him last summer. “It’s not just against Paul Kariya that he plays that way. You have to accept it and expect it.”

When someone said, “Yeah, but Chelios doesn’t usually take a baseball-bat swing at other players,” Hartsburg responded with a chuckle. “You’ve got to watch him every night to see some of the stuff he does,” Hartsburg said.

Kariya responded by scoring the Ducks’ first goal and narrowly missing a second that ricocheted off the crossbar, ending a three-game scoring drought. Matt Cullen scored the Ducks’ second goal, on a power play only 24 seconds into the third period, and Marty McInnis added an empty-net goal in the final minute.

Chelios was on the ice for all three Duck goals.

Goaltender Guy Hebert and the Duck defense muzzled the Blackhawks and right wing Tony Amonte, who went into the game locked in a four-way tie for the NHL lead with 27 goals.

Hebert recorded his fifth shutout in 1998-99, topping his career high of four in a season, set in 1995-96 and 1996-97. It was his first since a 3-0 victory Dec. 13 against the Kings.

“We played pretty hard on [Amonte] and [Doug] Gilmour and Alex Zhamnov tonight,” Hebert said. “[Amonte] never got a clear-cut scoring chance. You can’t not know when he’s on the ice. We played it smart. We tried to wear him down.”

The physical play made a difference in the game. The Ducks certainly benefited from some jarring by Chelios and his teammates. The Blackhawks merely lost their poise and their third consecutive game.

Hartsburg shuffled his top two lines, which didn’t exactly turn the Ducks into the Edmonton Oilers of the mid-1980s. But Cullen scored his second goal in three games and had many more chances in his first game on a line with Kariya and right wing Teemu Selanne.

Center Steve Rucchin, who skated on the second line, also had an active game around the net.

But like Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Edmonton, the Ducks didn’t generate a great deal of offense. They were outshot, 35-23, Wednesday.

Still, the Ducks had three of the game’s first four scoring chances and led, 1-0, after Kariya shoveled a rebound past Chicago goalie Jocelyn Thibault only 3:34 into the first period.

Chicago, 1-3-1 in the first five games of a seven-game trip that continues tonight against the Kings, carried the play for most of the early going.

Todd White had Chicago’s best first-period scoring chance, racing past Jason Marshall on the left wing. But White couldn’t squeeze the puck past Hebert.