Sudden Life for Ducks

Ruslan Salei and Jean-Sebastien Giguere shared a quiet little moment Saturday evening.

“He screamed in my face, I screamed in his,” Giguere said. “We were just going, ‘Aaaaaaaaaah’ at each other. It was a good thing.”

Understatement alarms can sound off now.

That moment was the difference between the Mighty Ducks settling into a long summer of what-ifs and having a chance to even up the Stanley Cup finals Monday night.

Salei’s goal 6 minutes 59 seconds into overtime gave the Ducks a 3-2 victory that ended any mystique about the Devils and goaltender Martin Brodeur being invincible.

Brodeur, who had back-to-back shutouts during light workouts in the first two games, put one goal on a silver platter for the Ducks and aided and abetted on another. But it was a shot he had no chance on that made Salei and Giguere want to twist and shout.

Adam Oates won a faceoff in the Devil end, drawing the puck back on a set play to Salei, who fired a shot that beat Brodeur to the left. That left 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond frothing at the mouth and had the Ducks sighing in relief, as they are now down only 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

“You got to take that shot and hope for the best,” Salei said. “It hasn’t hit me yet. But it is unbelievable.”

It was the end-game to an odd game.

* Giguere assisted on a goal by Sandis Ozolinsh. Giguere, who suffered through “Marty’s better” chants in New Jersey, also stopped 29 of 31 shots and broke Patrick Roy’s record for consecutive shutout minutes in overtime. Giguere has gone 167:47 without allowing a goal in overtime this postseason.

* The Devils scored one goal with six skaters on the ice, as Patrik Elias doubled back from the bench and chipped in a shot to tie the score, 1-1, 14 minutes into the second period. Jay Pandolfo then slinked off the ice, leaving the correct number on it to celebrate.

* The Ducks got two goals in which the goal scorers never saw the puck go in, both of which Brodeur had a helping hand in.

That left the Devils with a nagging thought.

“We were one shot from away from a 3-0 lead [in the series],” Jeff Friesen said.

Friesen was talking about three overtime chances the Devils had. But the one shot that may have kept this series from being a coronation came in the second period.

Duck defenseman Ozolinsh, who had just crossed the red line, harmlessly dumped the puck into the Devil zone. He was doing everything possible to keep it away from Brodeur, who is well known for his ability to handle the puck.

That prowess became a pratfall.

As the puck glided toward him, Brodeur dropped his stick and the puck deflected off it and went between his legs to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead 14:47 into the period.

“That was crazy,” Ozolinsh said. “He is so big at playing the puck that I wanted to put it as far away from him as possible. I got spun around and didn’t see it go in. I turned to the bench and the horn went on and everyone was yelling. I looked to see who had scored the goal. It was me.”

With two assists on the play.

One by Giguere, who had moved the puck to Ozolinsh.

One by Brodeur, who was brilliant in the third period, with several bang-bang saves, but was left with a lowlight that will be replayed for his displeasure in days, weeks and years to come, depending how the series plays out.

“Very freaky,” Oates said. “He lost his stick, then let it go through his legs. Double dingo.”

Scott Gomez nearly got Brodeur off the hook. He redirected a Grant Marshall shot to tie the score, 2-2, 9:11 into the third period, which was what sent the game into overtime. That merely put the Ducks in their comfort zone -- they are now 6-0 in overtime this postseason -- and took Brodeur out of his -- he now has an 8-17 career record in playoff overtimes.

“You get a gift like that, you don’t return it,” defenseman Keith Carney said. “We needed to get something off him. We needed to show he was human.”

After being mired in the swamps of Jersey, the Ducks hit their stride from the start. They had only 16 shots in each of the first two games. They reached 16 shots 17 minutes into the second period.

Their play was almost complete opposite of how it went in New Jersey.

The Ducks had been overmatched in the first two games. Brodeur had back-to-back shutouts but had seen little action. The Devils had made center ice a no-skate neutral zone, knocking down Duck rushes.

That had put the Ducks in a hole few teams have clawed out of in the past. There have been 40 teams that lost the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals and only three had come back to win the series.

But before the Ducks could think about winning, they had to start with the basics.

“You need to score a goal to win a game,” Carney said.

That finally happened in the second period, with a little help from their new friend: Brodeur.

Many believe him to be the slickest puck handler to ever wear a goalie mask, but he did a poor job rimming the puck from behind the net. It went to Ozolinsh, who shot toward the net. Marc Chouinard, being dumped to the ice, tapped the puck along, changing the direction enough to leave Brodeur hung out like laundry.

“I got up and everyone was rushing at me,” said Chouinard, who had scored only three goals during the regular season. “That was when I knew I had scored.”

There was no soft-pedaling the play. It ended Brodeur’s shutout streak at 161:46 and gave the Ducks a pulse.

“We’re back in the series now,” Paul Kariya said.

Which was something to shout about.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Series

*--* DUCKS VS. NEW JERSEY Devils lead series, 2-1 All games begin at 5 p.m. PDT GAME 1 New Jersey 3, Ducks 0 GAME 2 New Jersey 3, Ducks 0 GAME 3 Ducks 3, New Jersey 2 (OT) GAME 4 Monday--at the Pond, Ch. 7 GAME 5 Thurs.--at New Jersey, Ch. 7 GAME 6 Saturday--at the Pond, Ch. 7* GAME 7 June 9--at New Jersey, Ch. 7* * if necessary

*--*