Ducks Take Break After a Good Trip

The Mighty Ducks left home in a funk last week but returned giddy and confident--if a little bleary-eyed--early this morning after an undefeated four-game trip.

“Just what the doctor ordered,” goalie Guy Hebert said after the Ducks’ 3-3 tie Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers before a sellout crowd of 19,742 at the First Union Center.

“Perfect, exactly what we were hoping for,” right wing Teemu Selanne added.

There’s plenty of work still to be done if the Ducks are to rally to secure a playoff spot in the final 28 games. At the All-Star break, the 10th-place Ducks are 22-24-8-1 for 53 points.

But there was a sense of renewal in the dressing room after a 2-0-2 trip, the Ducks’ most successful East Coast trip in their seven-season history.

Coach Craig Hartsburg challenged Hebert two weeks ago to be better, and he was superb in victories over the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins and ties against the Buffalo Sabres and the Flyers.

Hartsburg also met with Selanne and left wing Paul Kariya a couple of weeks ago, asking them to create more offense. Selanne’s seven-game point streak (seven goals, seven assists) and Kariya’s 10 goals and six assists in eight games indicate they met the challenge.

Hartsburg tinkered with the power play, moving defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky to the point and shifting Kariya to a more effective station closer to the net. The Ducks responded by going seven for 20 (35%) on the trip, above their season success rate of 12.7%.

“It’s too bad we have a break now,” Selanne said, referring to their three-day All-Star break.

Indeed, the Ducks haven’t been unbeaten in four in a row since their four-game winning streak in December. Of course, they promptly went into a 3-11-2 tailspin that they finally appear to have shaken.

When asked directly, Hartsburg refused to call it a make-or-break trip, then almost said as much.

“We knew going into this trip that it was going to be a big trip,” he said. “We needed some points. We were close to falling out of the pack. We needed to get something done.”

Predictably, Kariya and Selanne led the Ducks.

But they were not alone. Hebert didn’t have much work against the Penguins and Bruins, but he was spectacular against the Sabres and Flyers. Hebert had 45 saves against the Flyers, two nights after a 39-save effort against the Sabres.

Tverdovsky had a goal Thursday, extending a career-best point streak to seven games (two goals, nine assists). Jeff Nielsen and Selanne (power play) had the other Duck goals.

John LeClair, Eric Desjardins and Eric Lindros scored for the Flyers, who are 12 points behind the Atlantic Division-leading New Jersey Devils.

“We feel very good right now,” Selanne said. “Every point is very important. This point is maybe even bigger than what we think right now. We need everyone [to contribute], especially when we have a tough road trip.”

The big, bad Flyers are never an easy team to play, but especially in the final game of a four-game, six-night trip. The Ducks countered the Flyers’ remarkable size with exceptional speed, however.

Brawn versus finesse always makes for a good matchup, no matter the sport, and the Flyers versus the Ducks is no exception. Thursday’s tie was the second time this season they have deadlocked, 3-3.

LeClair gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead 37 seconds into the game. Tverdovsky countered at 9:10 of the first period. Desjardins put the Flyers ahead with his 100th NHL goal at 16:25 of the second. Nielsen’s first goal since Jan. 7 evened the score at 2-2 with 57 seconds left in the period.

Selanne’s power-play goal gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead 1:09 into the third period. He ripped a one-timer from the left faceoff circle off a cross-ice pass from Kariya past goalie John Vanbiesbrouck.

But Lindros, stationed near the left goal post, then swatted a bouncing puck off Duck defenseman Kevin Haller, who was in front of Hebert, for the tying goal while the Flyers were on a power play at the 6:15 mark. Lindros’ shot would have sailed well wide of the net if it had not struck Haller.

“We’ll rest for a few days and move on,” Hartsburg said. “This was a big trip for us. We battled for everything we got. We got big efforts from everybody. We’ll build on it and move ahead.”