Good Things Happen to Those Who Believe

Sometime after the fog had cleared from his brain and the soreness of playing for nearly six hours had seeped out of his legs, Duck goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere realized he had passed a significant test.

As a kid, he had marveled at goalies who didn’t waver during playoff overtimes. He wondered how they ignored the puddled sweat in their skates, the heaviness of their pads, how they narrowed their universe to the puck and the 4-by-6 net they protected.

“I’d say, ‘How do these people do it, go three, four overtimes and be fine?’ ” he said. “It didn’t seem possible.”

He knows it’s possible now, in the aftermath of the Ducks’ 4-3 quintuple-overtime victory over the Dallas Stars in the opener of their second-round playoff series. Of greater importance, he knows he can find that same unshakable concentration and emerge triumphant, even when there might be reasons to expect otherwise.

The Ducks squandered a two-goal lead, giving up a goal in the last three minutes of the third period. They again produced no pressure nor goals on the power play, leaving them 0 for 17. They were dominated in overtime by the Stars.

And still they won.

Because of Giguere, certainly, but also because this is a team whose confidence is growing. “Just going through that, and knowing I can do it, makes me feel very good,” Giguere said Friday, a day the Ducks refreshed their bodies and minds with light off-ice workouts but didn’t skate. “I’m in this to learn, and there’s no better way of learning than going to overtime. You want to be part of this situation and show what you’re made of.”

They’re made of determination, scrappiness and resourcefulness. It didn’t matter that the Stars were bigger and hit harder and had a productive and mobile defense. The Ducks, calm and cool in the caldron of playoff competition and a warm arena, chipped away until Adam Oates set up Petr Sykora on a play that developed quickly and efficiently and ended their longest night 48 seconds into the fifth extra period.

“We’re a bunch of guys that work hard,” said Oates, who gave yeoman efforts along the boards, even though he’s better known for playmaking than grinding. “We’re not overly talented but we’re hard-working guys and we never give up.

“It’s been like that for two, three months now. We’d be down going into the third period and we’d find ways to come back and win some games. We just don’t give up.”

Persistence can’t be taught. It either develops or it doesn’t. Players trust each other or they don’t, and no inspirational speech by the glibbest of coaches can persuade players to play for each other if they don’t believe their sacrifices will be repaid.

The trust that was forged during the season and strengthened during their first-round sweep of Detroit grew Thursday when defenseman Keith Carney blocked two shots on one shift, staggered to the bench in pain and never missed a turn en route to playing 56 minutes 20 seconds. It grew more when Steve Rucchin, jostling all game to neutralize slick and skillful Star center Mike Modano, won merely seven of the first 16 faceoffs he took in regulation time but won 14 of 23 in overtime, when puck possession was crucial.

“You don’t want to be the guy that lets your teammates down,” Rucchin said.

No one let anyone else down, not even when Giguere got a piece of Brenden Morrow’s deflection but not enough to prevent Dallas from tying the score with 2:47 to play in the third period. Giguere and the Ducks recovered quickly.Winning in five overtimes, Duck Coach Mike Babcock said, was their just reward -- and an unmistakable message to the Stars.

“It tells your team and each other, ‘We’re not giving in,’ ” he said. “We’re not going away quietly.... They’re going by your bench too, wondering, ‘What’s with these guys?’ ”

Could the Ducks be -- dare we say it -- a team of destiny? Their general manager, Bryan Murray, had the same job with the 1996 Florida Panthers, who staged a series of upsets before they lost to Colorado in the Stanley Cup finals. He sees many parallels between the teams, especially in their superb goaltending, but said the Ducks “probably have more options to score.... The guys have a way of playing within the system, but you need heart in the end, and it sure appears they have that.”

By the time players stripped off their sodden gear, showered and changed for the bus ride to their hotel and their postgame meal, their steaks had grown cold. The Ducks, however, are hot. This playoff journey might be just starting.