Ducks’ Hebert Is Dominating Too

The first shot he faced in more than three months was a floater from near the blue line. Dominik Hasek easily gloved Pavel Trnka’s flip. It was no big deal.

But moments later, with the NHL’s hottest players bearing down on him, the Buffalo Sabres’ goalie made a difficult save almost seem routine.

Hasek snuffed Teemu Selanne’s point-blank try off a cross-ice pass from Paul Kariya, and plenty of other quality scoring chances in a remarkable return from a serious groin injury.

In the end, the Mighty Ducks squeezed two third-period power-play goals past Hasek, rallying for a 2-2 tie Tuesday against the Sabres before a sellout crowd of 18,960 at Marine Midland Arena.

Only superb goaltending from Guy Hebert kept the Sabres from writing a perfect script for Hasek’s return. Hebert stopped 39 shots--nine in the five-minute overtime period, including a backhander from left wing Miroslav Satan from close range while the Ducks were short-handed.

“I guess I’m not much of a writer,” Buffalo Coach Lindy Ruff said. “We wanted to write a good ending for Dom, but Hebert didn’t want any part of it.”

Neither did the Duck power-play unit, now scalding after a tepid first 50 games of the season. Two more power-play goals gave the Ducks six during the first three games of this four-game trip. Not surprisingly, the Ducks are 2-0-1.

Down, 2-0, heading into the third period, the Ducks got power-play goals from defenseman Fredrik Olausson, at the 4:43 mark, and center Steve Rucchin, at 14:16.

The goals were strikingly similar and Rucchin had a hand in both. First, he screened Hasek, who did not see Olausson’s blast from the right point. Rucchin then deflected Oleg Tverdovsky’s slap shot from near the blue line.

The Ducks aren’t known for getting traffic in front of opposing goalies, but Rucchin played it perfectly against Hasek.

“It’s nice to see him rewarded,” Kariya said. “He takes a real beating out there [in front of the net].”

After Hasek’s stop on Selanne in the opening minutes and a diving save against him later in the first period, it figured to take something special for the Ducks to score.

Ted Donato had at least three breakaways, but could not beat Hasek, who had 29 saves in his first game since suffering the groin injury Oct. 29. Kip Miller, accepting a pass from Donato, also had a great scoring chance in the dying minutes of regulation.

Buffalo dominated in overtime, outshooting the Ducks, 9-1. Selanne lost his cool in overtime, taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty 54 seconds into the extra period.

Satan later had Hebert dead to rights, but couldn’t flip a backhander past him. Hebert deflected the shot with his glove.

“I was just trying to keep up my end of the bargain,” Hebert said. “Dom is so great. If you don’t play a flawless game, there’s a good chance you’re not going to win.”

Of denying Satan, who scored the Sabres’ first goal in the first period, Hebert said, “I was really comfortable. I wanted to be patient and make him make the first move. It was the right play for a change.”

Michael Peca also scored for the Sabres, who haven’t had more than two goals in a game since losing to the Kings, 5-3, Jan. 18.

Sitting helpless in the penalty box, Selanne marveled at Hebert’s goaltending in overtime.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Selanne said. “He made all those saves. Hasek saved the game for them. ‘Guybo’ did the same for us.”

Hasek ended the goal-scoring streaks of Kariya (six games) and Selanne (five games). He also looked as if he hadn’t missed a beat, despite participating in only one full-length practice since October.