Ducks Stand Their Ground, Tie Bruins

The Mighty Ducks picked up a point and also made one Wednesday.

They came away with a point in the standings after a 2-2 tie with the Boston Bruins in front of an announced 10,348 at the Arrowhead Pond on Wednesday, with about 6,500 estimated in the building.

Goalies Steve Shields and John Grahame were solid. Shields stopped 39 of 41 shots up, including two sprawling saves in overtime. He gave up a power-play goal and was unlucky when a shot deflected off teammate Jason York’s skate.

Grahame, making his first start, stopped 29 of 31shots. He managed to get a leg pad on a Jeff Freisen point-blank shot with 13 seconds left in overtime.

But while the goalies pushed, the Ducks shoved.

The Bruins pounded on the Ducks in the season opener two weeks ago, literally, handing out several crushing checks. They came with that intent again Wednesday, but the Ducks gave some back, which resulted in a few after-whistle scrums.

“I don’t think we’re going to run the Boston Bruins,” Coach Bryan Murray said before the game. “They have some big guys up front. We need to move the puck quickly.”

The puck-moving-thing was all well and good. The Ducks had the better of things in overtime. Marty McInnis nearly decided matters with a wrist shot that Grahame deflected with his left arm.

But it was the Ducks ability to trade blows with the Bruins that was marked improvement.

“We can play as physical as anybody in this league,” Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei said. “We just have to put our mind to it. If you have that in mind, your shoulder will follow.”

Salei practiced what he preached, going after Joe Thornton, who had just belted the Ducks’ Oleg Tverdovsky, 46 seconds in the third period. Martin Lapointe then jumped Salei.

As a result, the Bruins lost Lapointe for much of the third period. He received a minor penalty for instigating, a major for fighting and had a 10-minute misconduct tacked on.

“You know they are going to come at you, they’ve always been that kind of team,” Duck forward Mike Leclerc said. “But we had to give it back. We even had to initiate some of it.”

The goalies had the better of it through the first period and a half. But some things were out of their control.

Shields continued his sharp play, but he could not bail out the Ducks in the second period. Petr Tenkrat went off for cross-checking and Salei followed for hooking 34 seconds later, giving the Bruins a five-on-three power play.

The Ducks managed to kill the first penalty, but before Tenkrat could join the play, Brian Rolston lined up a shot from the edge of the left face-off circle and fired a shot past Shields for a 1-0 lead 11:38 into the period.

Grahame was even more active than Shields. But the Ducks got to him on a power play as well. Paul Kariya blistered a shot from inside the blue line that Grahame managed to get a leg on. The rebound went to Steve Rucchin, who chipped in a shot while two Bruin defenders looked on 13:21 into the period.

The Ducks took the lead when Friesen tipped a Salei blue-line blast under Grahame’s pad at 16:23. It gave Friesen a team-high three goals.

The Bruins tied the score a minute later, also on a deflection ... by York.

Rolston won a faceoff back to Lapointe, who wound up for a shot. But Friesen managed to get his stick in the way and the puck trickled off Lapointe’s stick, then ricocheted off York’s skate past Shields.