Duo Works for the Ducks

There was little reason to expect much from defenseman Niclas Havelid. He was a spare part, a damaged one at that, as Mighty Duck General Manager Bryan Murray began to piece together a roster last summer.

The expectations were placed elsewhere, on Fredrik Olausson, another defenseman, brought in to provide some offense from the blue line.

Their role reversal has steadily evolved.

Havelid, fully rehabilitated from a knee injury suffered in January 2001, has provided the offense. Olausson became the question mark, trying to regain the form that made him so successful for 14 seasons.

That balanced out a little Sunday, when each scored goals to push the Ducks to a 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators in front of an announced 11,979 at the Arrowhead Pond.

Havelid scored to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead in the first period. Olausson, expected to play his 1,000th NHL game Wednesday, made it 2-0 in the second period with his first regular-season goal since Nov. 7, 2001. They were part of a tapestry that made the Ducks’ return from a five-day trip a fine homecoming.

Petr Sykora scored his second goal in as many games. The Ducks had two power-play goals. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere had light duty, but stopped 20 shots for his 10th career shutout.

But the emphasis afterward was on the defense, specifically the offense from the defense.

“You can’t score if you don’t have a fourth guy on the attack,” Duck captain Paul Kariya said. “Teams back-check so hard. They have four guys back [on defense] half the time. You have to attack to score.

“Nicky has been very good all year, jumping up into the play, creating offensive scoring chances. It was nice to get Freddy involved. He played one of his strongest games. That was a good two points for us.”

Which let the Ducks continue to loiter in an area previously off limits ... the playoff race.

The Predators were a bit fatigued in playing their third game in four nights. They didn’t have a shot on goal until 16:52 into the first period.

Nor was history on their side after Kariya returned a pass to Havelid, who stuck a shot just under the crossbar for a 1-0 lead 14:32 into the first period, a lead the Ducks took into the dressing room.

“The first 10 minutes of the game were obviously the key,” Giguere said. “We wanted to show them we were not going to give them anything.”

Nothing was clearly what the Predators were going to get late in the second period when Sykora redirected a Matt Cullen shot for a power-play goal and a 3-0 lead.

The victory moved the Ducks into seventh place and gave them 31 points in 29 games, the best start in franchise history.

“We want to continue to hang around,” Coach Mike Babcock said.

That is what Olausson has done much of the season. He helped Detroit win the Stanley Cup last season and the Ducks picked him up with the mandate to help improve the power play.

Yet, he struggled from the start of the season and took himself out of the lineup in November to get in playing shape, returning only after Ruslan Salei injured his back. Olausson, though, was a non-issue because of Havelid, who has four goals, tops among Duck defensemen.

Olausson chipped in on a second-period power play.

Said Olausson: “I’d rather do it now than 30 games down the road.”