Ducks in Overdrive

Body language said everything Monday night.

There were Mighty Ducks falling all over themselves, trying to touch teammate Steve Thomas, pawing at him like he was some big-tent faith healer.

Moments before, none of them were doubting Thomas when he crashed the net and fired the shot that gave the Ducks a 1-0 victory 39 seconds into overtime.

There was New Jersey’s Scott Stevens, captain crunch, the knock-’em-down symbol of the blue-collar Devils, trudging toward the dressing room.

Even, Stevens.

Thomas drifted in from the blue line, eyeing the frenzy in front of the Devil net. The puck rolled out to him and he whipped it past goaltender Martin Brodeur, and 17,174 fans at the Arrowhead Pond went nuts, as the Ducks had sent the Stanley Cup finals back to New Jersey tied, 2-2.

“The confidence level we have right now just gives us intestinal fortitude to go out there and make it happen,” Thomas said.

This was just another bicarbonate-soda type of evening for the Ducks.

Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped everything, and needed to again, picking up his fifth shutout of the playoffs, three of which have been 1-0 games. He nudged forward by another 39 seconds his NHL playoff-record overtime scoreless streak -- 168 minutes 27 seconds this postseason.

The Ducks applied pressure and dominated throughout, putting the Devils on their heels. That forced New Jersey to rely more and more on Brodeur, who now has an 8-18 career record in playoff overtimes.

A cast member, part of an all-for-one dressing room, provided the game-winner. Thomas, a March 11 acquisition, scored his second game-winner of the playoffs and the second playoff overtime goal of his career.

The Ducks earned their 12th one-goal victory in the playoffs after winning 24 in the regular season, tying them with New Jersey for the league high.

And, finally, overtime was needed. The Ducks have won back-to-back overtime games in this series and are a perfect 7-0 this postseason, three short of Montreal’s NHL record set in 1993.

“The next thing we need to do is get one done in 60 minutes,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said.

A little overtime was fine with them Monday and the Ducks knew whom to lean on in that situation.

“A lot of the guys were calling on [Thomas] to win it before the overtime started,” team captain Paul Kariya said. “That always seems to be his time. He’s always crashing the net and getting involved. He seems to have the flair for the dramatic. He did it again tonight.”

Thomas scored 10 goals in 12 regular-season games after being acquired from Chicago, two in overtime. He shares the NHL record with 13 overtime goals in the regular season. He was placed in harm’s way again Monday, but it was the Devils who were about to be harmed.

“I had a perfect view from the bench,” defenseman Keith Carney said. “You could see what was about to happen.”

Thomas started the chaos as soon as overtime began. He brought the puck into the Devil zone, then sent a cross-ice pass to Sandis Ozolinsh. Samuel Pahlsson crashed the net and Ozolinsh sent the puck to him. Brodeur made a brilliant diving save.

Thomas never stopped moving and swept in to fire back on net, then was buried beneath a mass of teammates.

“I have to pinch myself every time I find myself in that position,” Thomas said. “The goal tonight was the effort of 20 guys that played with the emotion needed to win a game like that.”

The emotion has made a dramatic swing the Ducks’ way.

The Devils flew west with a 2-0 lead in the series and had handled the Ducks so well in New Jersey, winning both games, 3-0, that it seemed the only thing left to be decided was who would do the engraving on the Cup.

“We gave them too much respect and you can’t do that if you’re going to be successful,” said Giguere, who made 26 saves. “There’s two teams invited to the finals and we needed to be involved.”

That will be the Devils’ goal heading into Game 5 Thursday. They have a 10-1 home record in the playoffs, which they were happy to be asked about Monday.

“We have to use our home-ice advantage,” Stevens said. “The pressure is on us.”

The Ducks added to it throughout Monday’s game.

It was clear, though, who was getting bounced. The shots were even, 26-26, at the end of the game. The score was tied at the end of regulation. But there was little doubt which team was skating downhill.

The Ducks deserved a regulation victory as they out-skated, out-hit and out-worked the Devils as the game wore on. They had two near misses.

Stanislav Chistov was alone in the slot on a rush and fired a wrist shot that just missed, clanging off the right post, 7:55 into the second period. Adam Oates picked up a turnover by defenseman Brian Rafalski and fired a shot that went under Brodeur’s right pad. The puck, though, deflected off the left post, keeping the game scoreless 11:12 into the second period.

Brodeur handled everything else until the end.

Giguere, meanwhile, continued to play at a Conn Smythe trophy level.

John Madden redirected a Scott Niedermayer shot halfway to the net, but Giguere changed directions quickly to make the save 18 minutes into the second period.

Madden waltzed in alone with time running out in the second period, but Giguere stoned him, then scooped up the puck like a shortstop when it bounced off Niclas Havelid and trickled toward him.

“We tied the series,” Thomas said. “It’s much better being 2-2 than 3-1 going back to Jersey.”

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Extraordinarily Tough

*--* The Ducks are 7-0 in overtime during the postseason. A look at the results: FIRST ROUND VS. DETROIT Game Score Winning goal 1 3-2 Paul Kariya at 3:18 of third OT 4 3-2 Steve Ruccin at 6:53 of first OT CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS VS. DALLAS Game Score Winning goal 1 4-3 Petr Sykora at :48 of fifth OT 2 3-2 Mike Leclerc at 1:44 of first OT CONFERENCE FINALS VS. MINNESOTA Game Score Winning goal 1 1-0 Petr Sykora at 8:06 of second OT FINALS VS. NEW JERSEY Game Score Winning goal 3 3-2 Ruslan Salei at 6:59 of first OT 4 1-0 Steve Thomas at :39 of first OT

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