Confidence Is Growing

There are signs that the Mighty Ducks are reaching Coach Bryan Murray’s expectations, a tribute to their play of late and the reasonable level at which he set the bar.

Then Ducks have won four of six games and are 5-4-1-0 since a 1-3 trip to open the season. They have scored 10 goals in their last two games.

“A lot of it has to do with confidence,” center Matt Cullen said. “Especially for a team like us, which relies on speed and skill. Confidence is such a fragile thing. You have to earn it by being prepared.”

The Ducks look prepared in many areas.

* Cullen has begun playing the best hockey of his career, with a goal and six assists in the last five games.

* Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere has a 1.60 goals-against average and is 4-1 in his last five starts.

* Dan Bylsma, with 10 career goals in 302 games before this season, has scored four goals in five games.

* Paul Kariya has scored three goals in two games after a 10-game goal-less streak.

* Defensemen Ruslan Salei and Vitaly Vishnevski, somewhat timid at the start of the season, are again making opponents pay a price in the Ducks’ zone by hitting anyone who skates in.

“I think the last seven or eight games we’ve started to do things the way we need to do,” Murray said.

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Right wing Marty McInnis, out with a sprained right wrist, and enforcer Jim Cummins, out with a torn muscle in his rib cage, both skated after practice.

McInnis hopes to return to the lineup Wednesday against Calgary.