Ducks Give the Gift of Goal

This was more of a red-faced than red-letter day on the east side of the 57 Freeway.

Disney’s professional sports teams certainly had their ups and downs Sunday. Across the way, the Angels were celebrating their first World Series appearance. At the Arrowhead Pond, the Mighty Ducks were having a performance that left them with a shade of crimson, after handing out goals like they were promotional giveaways in a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

The loss snapped the Ducks’ five-game unbeaten streak in home openers (4-0-1). And this, technically, qualified as home game, even with the legions of Red Wing fans in attendance. No matter who the 17,174 at the Pond were rooting for, they got an eyeful when Adam Oates sent a 194-foot shot up the ice and into his team’s empty net to give the Red Wings a 3-0 lead.

Yet, that was merely the grand prize in a game where the Ducks couldn’t hand the puck over fast enough in key situations.

“I pretty much hit it dead center,” Oates said. “I’ve never done that one before.”

After 17 seasons in the NHL, Oates has very few “firsts” left in his career. This one he could have lived without.

The Red Wings were leading, 2-0, and the team’s were skating four-on-four. Brendan Shanahan was about to be called for a penalty.

Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere headed for the bench to get a man advantage. The puck deflected off Shanahan’s skate into the corner. Oates sent a pass to defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski at the blue line.Only Vishnevski was heading to the Duck bench to get another offensive-skilled player on the ice. The only thing that was going to stop the puck was an act of God.

“I watched it go the whole way,” Oates said.

Officially, it was a power play, as the Red Wings’ Mathieu Dandenault had just stepped back onto the ice, which just added to the unusual moment.

“No. No. A pretty standard [goal],” Shanahan said, then paused for effect.

“Would you call it a goal that I scored? I’d call it a goal I got credit for. I’m not going to refer to that one as one I scored. That is going to make up for some night I hit the post.”

The goal gave the Red Wings their 3-0 lead at 19 minutes 30 seconds of the third period. That became more crucial when Paul Kariya scored 24 seconds later and Ruslan Salei blasted in a one-timer from the blue line five minutes into the third period to make it 3-2.

“The bad break against you, that’s part of the game and you can live with that,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “The others you can’t. You can’t give a good team goals.”

The champagne was still flowing at Edison Field when the Ducks turned the puck over at center ice, which led to Shanahan’s first goal, 43 seconds into the game.

The Ducks had the silver platter out again with the score 3-2. Another turnover ended in disaster when Henrik Zetterberg chipped in a rebound on a power play, giving the Red Wings a 4-2 lead 13:42 into the third period.

The Ducks had their turns with the puck, including eight power plays. They converted on only one. “On the power play, there are times we are looking to pass the puck instead looking to shoot the puck,” Kariya said.

Unfortunately for the Ducks, there was one time Oates shot the puck when he was actually passing it.