Shields Battles Shooting Stars

The fact that Mighty Duck goalie Steve Shields was angry was obvious. There were a few things that deserved his indignation.

He had to survive a storm of shots in a 2-2 tie with the Dallas Stars in front of an announced crowd of 11,917 at the Arrowhead Pond Sunday.

He did what he could, stopping 42 of 44 shots, but saw a 2-1 lead go poof .

He got mugged behind the net in the second period by Dallas defenseman Derian Hatcher.

Yet what bugged Shields the most was one shot and one ruling.

Dallas’ Jere Lehtinen wound up and fired from just inside the blue line. Shields anticipated that and was ready. Easy save. Or so he thought.

As Lehtinen shot, the Stars’ Donald Audette slipped in front of Shields, , hitting the goalie’s stick with his left skate. The puck shot through Shields’ legs, where his stick should have been.

Shields yelled at referee Dennis LaRue. No call. Shields waved his arms frantically. No call.

The Stars had tied the score with five minutes left. The Ducks survived overtime, letting Shields do most of the work, and walked off with one point. But Shields was fuming afterward.

“The rule says that you can’t impede a goalie from making a save,” Shields said. “I asked the referee a few minutes later and he said, ‘Yeah, he hit your stick. But he didn’t do it on purpose.’ That was two points we needed. It was such an obvious call. It’s disappointing. I better not say anything more that’ll get me in trouble.”

But he went on.

Television replays suggested that Audette did not seem to have malicious intent. Shields had his stick out of the goalie crease when contact was made. Duck Coach Bryan Murray had no qualms with the call after a postgame review of the tape.

Shields, though, held his ground, certainly far better than his teammates did during the third period. The Ducks were outshot, 28-3, in the final period and overtime by a team that was missing its two best centers, Mike Modano and Pierre Turgeon.

Shields had an easy time casting the villain.

“What aggravates me is LaRue seems to make his calls by what players are thinking,” Shields said. “The arrogance really bothers me. He doesn’t make a call on what he saw, but what players are thinking.”

Then, later, Shields added, “At least now I know we can go and just lift the other goalie’s stick out of the way any time we want. That’s the only positive thing that came out of tonight.”

There were some high points for the Ducks. They were just too few to matter after they subjected Shields to a third-period stoning.

Marty McInnis bounced a pass off the boards to Mike Leclerc, who came from behind the net to whip a shot past goalie Ed Belfour for a 1-0 lead midway through the first period.

After Joe Nieuwendyk tied the score at 12 minutes 15 seconds of the second period, Jeff Friesen answered four minutes later while the Stars were on the power play. Friesen picked up a loose puck at the Duck blue line and charged into the Stars’ zone, flicking a shot that went off the stick of Dallas defenseman Darryl Sydor.

It was Friesen’s 14th short-handed goal in his career.

A good night’s work. So Duck forwards called it quits.

“It seemed like we hung around waiting for them to tie it up,” Friesen said. “Obviously we’re not the Detroit Red Wings. We have to learn how to play with the lead.”

The Stars reduced the game to a shooting drill. Shields, making only his second start since Oct. 18, was up to almost all of it, snagging shots, deflecting others. The 42 saves were a season high.

“Shields was great,” Murray said.

That was all that needed to be said.

As for the rest of the team, Murray was less than pleased.

“Our forwards didn’t do a very good job along the wall,” Murray said. “Even when we got the puck out, we seemed happy to get it to the red line, then chip it in. The puck came right back at us. Our defensemen had guys hitting them from behind.

“I’m not saying that Dallas didn’t earn the point. They worked real hard. But we have to do a better job with the puck. We have to play the game instead of trying to win, 2-1.”