Hebert Holds Ground in OT

No question, Duck goalie Guy Hebert was out of his weight class Thursday against Philadelphia center Keith Primeau. After all, Hebert is generously listed at 5 feet 11 and 186 pounds and Primeau is 6-5 and 220.

When Primeau crashed into Hebert while attempting to score in overtime, the result was a big pileup with Hebert getting the worst of it. He lay on the ice for several minutes before returning to his net.

Moments later, Primeau barreled into Hebert again. This time, Hebert bounded to his skates and joined defensemen Pavel Trnka and Oleg Tverdovsky in punching Primeau.

Later, Hebert laughed about the plays, primarily because he was not seriously injured. He complained of a sore neck.

“I was looking for a penalty there,” he said. “You’ve got to stand your ground, so they don’t pop a cheap one in there on you.”

The Flyers’ overtime plan seemed to be to head to the net, but Primeau took it to extremes.

“He didn’t make any effort to get out of the way,” Hebert said.

Said Primeau: “I had a step on the defenseman, so I wanted to bring it to the net. There was no way I was going to be able to stop. I ended up running into him and they got all heated up about it.”

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After the game, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne of the Ducks and Eric Lindros of the Flyers boarded a private jet for a flight to Toronto for the All-Star weekend.

Kariya and Lindros are scheduled to pose today for a special All-Star photo shoot involving Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, among others. Selanne simply hitched a ride.

There was no immediate word on whether the Ducks sat on one side of the aisle with Lindros on the other. The remainder of the Ducks boarded the team charter for the cross-country flight home and a couple days of much-needed rest after their 2-0-2 trip.