Ducks Feeling High and Mighty

The pain that the Mighty Ducks’ Steve Rucchin has been through, the tragedy he bore without a complaint, were not wiped clean by this one moment.

But these, Rucchin knew, were better days.

Rucchin was smothered by teammates seconds after burying the game-winning goal that shoveled the last bit of dirt on the Detroit Red Wings, while the sellout crowd of 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond chanted, “sweep, sweep, sweep.”

Rucchin’s goal, 6 minutes 53 seconds into overtime, gave the Ducks a 3-2 victory that eliminated the Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jason Krog and Paul Kariya also scored. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere etched a satisfying finish to his masterful work in the series, stopping 32 of 34 shots. The Ducks, whose second-round series will begin next week, became only the second team in NHL history to sweep the defending Stanley Cup champions in the first round. Detroit did it to Toronto in 1952.

“Does this make us the favorites now?” Rucchin said. “I guess not. But this is huge for this franchise. Sweeping the Stanley Cup champions is not an easy feat.”

Rucchin has known worse.

Rucchin missed 110 of 164 games over the last two seasons because of injuries. During that time, his brother, Larry Rucchin, was suffering from cancer and died last June.

Rucchin returned for an 82-game season this year, the high point of which came after the two teams went to overtime after a Sergei Fedorov centering pass went off Duck defenseman Niclas Havelid with 2:15 left in regulation.

All that was a minor annoyance after Rucchin made the play of his career. He went into the Red Wing zone and fired a shot that goalie Curtis Joseph stopped. Rucchin circled the net and was in perfect position when Keith Carney passed from behind the net. Rucchin’s goal, his first of the playoffs, sent the Ducks toward him.

“This is great for Steve,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said. “We’re all happy for him especially. We have agonized with him the last two years.”

Rucchin has worked like Gunga Din the last week, harassing Fedorov, the Red Wings’ star center, from Michigan to Southern California.

“That’s tough mentally, I’ll tell you,” Rucchin said. “You chase him around, it’s hard to get things going offensively. You don’t want to make a mistake when Fedorov, [Steve] Yzerman and [Brendan] Shanahan are on the ice. You see those names on the back of jerseys going the other way, that’s trouble.”

Fedorov’s fluke goal in Game 4 was his only one in the series.

“How can you not be happy that Steve scored that goal?” Giguere said. “He is our leader in the dressing room. He is the guy who has after every game been saying, ‘There’s a lot more to do guys.’ Well, we still have a lot to do. But we got this one.”

Giguere made sure of that with another performance that left the Red Wings bewildered. He scrambled a bit more in net than in the previous three games but still came up with big saves.

He stopped 165 of 171 shots in the series, which included two overtime victories.

“That’s got to be a tough pill to swallow in the other room,” Rucchin said. “They threw everything they had at him tonight and Jiggy shut them down. We’re pretty confident going into overtime with him back there.”

The Ducks put in the work on their first two goals that matched Giguere’s effort.

The Red Wings stopped skating when their defenseman Mathieu Dandenault was about to be called for a penalty. Adam Oates and Kariya kept going. Oates carried the puck into the Detroit zone, then zipped a cross-ice pass to Kariya, who one-timed a shot into the upper right corner of the net to tie the score, 1-1, at 15:08.

Krog gave the Ducks the lead in the third period by not hesitating when Carney dumped the puck in the Red Wing zone. Krog raced in and played the carom, then rocketed a shot past Joseph for a 2-1 lead 4:35 into the third period.

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Clipped Wings

*--* Detroit has a history of losing to lesser-regarded opponents in the playoffs: Season Seeding Lost to Playoffs 2003 2nd 7th seeded Ducks, 4-0 First round 2001 2nd 7th seeded Kings, 4-2 First round 2000 2nd 4th seeded Colorado, 4-1 Second round 1996 1st 2nd seeded Colorado, 4-2 Conf. finals 1994 1st 8th seeded San Jose, 4-3 First round 1993 3rd 4th seeded Toronto, 4-3 First round 1992 1st 3rd seeded Chicago, 4-0 Conf. finals

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