Victory Is Latest Graze for Ducks

The Mighty Ducks outshot, out-battled and outplayed the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night.

Paul Kariya had a goal and an assist. Steve Rucchin did the same. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 26 of 28 shots. All the ingredients for a game worth framing.

And then the Ducks talked about luck after their 3-2 victory in front of 17,398. That’s how tough playing at Nationwide Arena has been for the Ducks since the Blue Jackets came into the league two seasons ago.

That frustration came to an end when Mike Leclerc forced a turnover behind the Blue Jacket net and centered a pass in front. Kariya waved at the puck with his stick and managed to graze it. That was enough, as it rolled over to Rucchin, who chipped the puck into an open net with 32 seconds left to give the Ducks a hard-earned two points.

“I kind of took a half shot and it went right to Rooch,” Kariya said. “Lucky play on my part.”

Said Rucchin: “I wasn’t quite sure it was going in when it went off my stick, but it got up just enough. I’ll take a few of those.”

The Ducks needed two goals in the final two minutes to get their first victory in Columbus after four losses. Jason Krog put a rebound shot past goalie Marc Denis. Then Rucchin found a puck at his feet.

So call it luck.

Yet, the Ducks also dominated the game from the second period on.

So call it justice.

“Hockey is a pretty fair game,” Coach Mike Babcock said. “The ice usually tilts to the team who plays better. This was a character win for us.”

More so since it followed a difficult overtime loss at New Jersey, where the Ducks let a two-goal lead slip away in the third period. It wasn’t the first time this season the Ducks had squandered a late lead.

“It’s nice to be on the receiving end of one of those,” Rucchin said. “We got fortunate. Look at my goal. It was just a lucky break there. A lot of times that’s what it takes.”

The Ducks have had nothing but hard luck in Columbus. Another in a serious of Ohio misadventures seemed to be unfolding.

Denis, who faced 51 shots Tuesday in a 5-4 loss to Colorado, saw 44 more Thursday. Yet, the Ducks were baffled by Denis much of the game, even when they beat him. Leclerc and Stanislav Chistov had a two-on-none breakaway in the first period. Chistov hit the post.

Only one puck got past Denis in 58 minutes and that was on a power play. Rucchin fired a shot that Kariya managed to redirect into the net to tie the score, 1-1, 19:14 into the second period.

“I thought we dominated tonight, we deserved the win,” Giguere said. “But sometimes a goalie will steal you a game like that.”

That seemed to be the case when Tyler Wright scored midway though the third period for a 2-1 Blue Jacket lead, and later when Denis stopped Rucchin’s point-blank try with a little more than two minutes left.

But moments later Matt Cullen flipped a shot that bounced off Denis and right to Krog, who scored his first NHL goal since Feb. 17, 2000.

“You just got to give yourself a chance, keep working hard,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said. “Sometimes you’re not going to win those games. At least you can walk out of the arena saying you gave yourself a chance to win. Of course, it’s always better to walk out with two points.”