Ducks Sport Look of Real Contenders

Talk about making a statement.

Behind backup goaltender Martin Gerber’s 26 saves, the Mighty Ducks rocked the Western Conference-leading Dallas Stars, 4-2, Friday night in front of a capacity crowd of 18,532 at American Airlines Center.

“It’s a growing process and we know that,” Duck center Adam Oates said. “We played a really good team. We were cautious early, but we played good hockey. Our power play got us going, Petr [Sykora] scored a nice goal and we played solid down the stretch. That’s a sign of a good team.”

The Ducks have won four games in a row and seven of eight. They moved ahead of the Edmonton Oilers into seventh place in the Western Conference with 65 points.

The Stars, playing without injured goalie Marty Turco and winger Brenden Morrow, suffered only their third home loss in regulation this season and had their seven-game unbeaten streak end. They are 15-2-4 over their last 21 games.

Oates, Sykora, Alexei Smirnov and Steve Rucchin each scored goals, and Paul Kariya picked up three assists and Ruslan Salei two for the Ducks, who play at Nashville tonight.

“We played with confidence,” said Gerber, who got to start so Jean-Sebastien Giguere could rest. “We knew that if we kept playing

Key to the victory was keeping Star center Mike Modano in check. He did score in the second period, and has 18 goals and 61 points in 42 games against the Ducks, but, for the most part, was not a factor, thanks to Rucchin, who finished with nearly 21 minutes of ice time.

“Rucchin was just great,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “He played a lot of minutes and was out there at key times.... We need our big line [Oates, Sykora and Kariya] to generate offense and momentum for us, but we also need [Rucchin] playing against the big guys and doing like he did tonight.”

After a scoreless first period, winger Jere Lehtinen got things going for the Stars when he won a battle for the puck behind the Ducks’ net and fed Modano, who scored from the left circle to give Dallas a 1-0 lead at 1:14.

But instead of falling apart, the Ducks woke up after Modano’s score, forcing the action to set up a two-man advantage.

With Scott Young and Niko Kapanen in the penalty box for the Stars, Oates scored from outside the left post when he deflected the puck off goalie Ron Tugnutt into the net, tying the score, 1-1, at 6:47.

The Ducks took a 2-1 lead on Sykora’s 22nd goal of the season. With the Stars scrambling on defense because of a bad line change, Kariya ended up with the puck in the neutral zone and passed to Sykora, who slipped a shot underneath Tugnutt at 9:55 in the second period.

In the third, the Stars tied it when Ulf Dahlen scored off a rebound at 2:40.

The Ducks dominated the rest of the game. Smirnov scored at 4:42 to give Anaheim a 3-2 lead and Rucchin increased the lead with a goal at 8:08.