Donato Regains His Touch With a Discarded Stick

For six agonizing weeks, Mighty Duck winger Ted Donato couldn’t hit the back of the net. Despite getting loads of chances, he had been blanked in 18 consecutive games.

But he’s a bright guy, a Harvard grad, and he knew just where to go to change his luck.

Donato trashed his old stick, picked out one of Paul Kariya’s discarded twigs, then scored the game-winner in the Ducks’ 4-3 come-from-behind victory Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Rest assured, Donato won’t be leaving his new stick behind for anyone else to use. It was plenty good to him Monday against the Blackhawks.

In addition to scoring his first goal since Dec. 31 against the Dallas Stars, Donato assisted on goals by linemates Matt Cullen and Kip Miller for his first three-point game as a Duck.

Donato’s third game-winner this season came with 2:10 left in the third period, a simple turn-and-shoot play from near the right goal post.

Chicago goalie Jocelyn Thibault said he saw Donato’s shot between a pair of skates, but couldn’t get his stick on the ice fast enough to stop it from squirting by him.

Donato figured it was about time he caught a break.

“It seems like I’ve had plenty of better chances and haven’t scored,” he said. “I’ve been gripping the stick a little harder lately, so I switched to one of Paul’s sticks and got lucky.”

Kariya leads the Ducks with 34 goals, but had given up on the stick. He also said it was for autograph use only. He had no clue Donato would score his eighth goal of the season with it.

Perhaps now the Ducks can use the stick as something to rally around. Certainly, they can use all the inspiration they can find as they attempt to rally into a playoff position in the NHL’s Western Conference.

For most of Monday’s game against the troublesome Blackhawks, it seemed the Ducks would slip another two points from contention.

The Ducks trailed, 3-2, entering the third period. They were not playing well and the Blackhawks looked nothing like the conference’s last-place team.

However, Miller tied the score by deflecting rookie defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski’s shot from the right point past Thibault at the 11:31 mark.

Donato set up the play by winning a faceoff, drawing the puck back to Vishnevski. Somehow Miller got his stick to the shot and the Ducks were even at 3-3 with plenty of time remaining.

The Donato-Cullen-Miller line clicked again on the go-ahead goal, using their speed to create a quick shot for Donato as Cullen and Chicago defenseman Bryan McCabe screened Thibault.

“Cullen’s line really came through for us,” said Teemu Selanne, whose second-period assist on Steve Rucchin’s goal extended his league-leading point streak to 11 games.

“It’s so important the other guys come up with some offense for us. It’s great to see the other lines playing so well. We need the depth.”

The Blackhawks’ top line of Tony Amonte, Doug Gilmour and Alex Zhamnov played the Kariya-Rucchin-Selanne line better than even Monday. But Chicago had no answer for the Ducks’ second line.

And after a rocky beginning in which he gave up a goal only 1:53 into the game, backup goaltender Dominic Roussel silenced Chicago in the final period for his first victory since Dec. 26.

“It was a huge two points,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said after the Ducks improved to 2-17-3 this season when trailing after two periods. “I guess it doesn’t matter how we got them. Maybe it was our ugliest win, but maybe it was also our best win.”