No Surprise: Ducks and Flyers Tie

The Mighty Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers seemed to be clones Wednesday night at the Arrowhead Pond. Well, except for the part about the Ducks being faster and the Flyers being bigger.

They have matching records. Almost the same goals scored and given up in the same number of games. Same early-season battles with short-attention-span hockey.

The Ducks and Flyers had their moments, particularly during a frenetic second period that had the announced crowd of 13,898 roaring. In the end, the teams couldn’t shed each other and settled for a 3-3 tie that somehow seemed fitting.

Neither the Ducks nor Flyers were all together pleased by the tie, which gave them both 6-6-2-1 records. Neither team was particularly upset by it. Both figured they could have--and perhaps should have--won.

“There were some things I really liked,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “Obviously, there were some other things we’ve got to keep working on.”

The biggest trouble for the Ducks was hanging on to a two-goal lead in the dying minutes of the second period. Goals from Paul Kariya, Fredrik Olausson and Teemu Selanne enabled the Ducks to turn a one-goal deficit into a 3-1 lead.

But the Ducks lost their smarts in the final three minutes of the second period, puzzling Hartsburg.

Eric Desjardins got the Flyers’ comeback started, capping a frenzied attack on backup goalie Dominic Roussel’s net with a bouncing point shot through traffic at 17:14.

John LeClair completed the rally by out-muscling Duck defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky to a loose puck and tapping it past Roussel with five seconds left in the second period. It was LeClair’s second goal of the period.

“Their second goal was mass chaos,” Hartsburg said of Desjardins’ goal. “The third goal was hard to explain. It looked pretty easy from where I was standing.”

After six goals in the second period, neither team could produce a tie-breaking goal in the third or in the five-minute overtime period. The Ducks’ speed and the Flyers’ heft proved to be a wash and neither could claim victory.

Defenseman Ruslan Salei had the Ducks’ best chance to break the tie in overtime but couldn’t put a one-timer on a cross-ice pass from Marty McInnis on net in the final minute.

Right wing Mark Recchi had the Flyers’ best opportunity but couldn’t convert on a backhander with 27.3 seconds left. Roussel made his best save of the night to smother Recchi’s point-blank shot.

“Particularly in the second and third periods, I thought we had a real good edge in play,” Philadelphia Coach Roger Neilson said. “It’s probably a game we should have won. However, they’re a dangerous team. And you’ve got to respect their transition game.”

The Flyers seemed destined to be scrambling after the Ducks all evening, just as it appeared Ducks would be dwarfed by the Flyers.

“Dallas works that hard too,” Tverdovsky said. “But size-wise, I don’t think there is any team like that [Philadelphia]. Look at their forwards. They’re probably 250 [pounds] each.

“It takes a lot out of you to play against them. They cycle the puck down low and make you fight for every inch of the ice.”

The Flyers got a big boost by the return of captain Eric Lindros, who missed the last two games because of a virus. Lindros assisted on each of the Flyers’ goals.

“He looked like the Eric of old,” Neilson said. “He hit hard and he made plays.”

Unlike Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Phoenix, the Ducks came out with a sense of purpose Wednesday against the Flyers. That purpose was to play with emotion, which was so sadly lacking against the Coyotes.

The Ducks handled the puck well enough and actually shot it on the Flyer net Wednesday. The Ducks also threw a couple of checks and seemed to be skating on ice rather than through quicksand.

“I thought we had a solid first period,” Hartsburg said. “We didn’t give them much. It was kind of a goofy second period. Once we are up, 3-1, we’ve got to be able to clamp down and we didn’t tonight.

“We need to stay with the plan, keep working at it and keep plowing ahead.”