In This Chess Match, Emotion Is the King

For every action, there was a reaction. For every move, a consideration and a counter-move.

Mighty Duck Coach Mike Babcock compared the fourth game of the Stanley Cup finals to a chess match, a notion promptly quashed by his New Jersey Devil counterpart, Pat Burns, the humorless martinet who put the “ouch” in “grouch.”

In a sense, Burns was right. The Ducks’ 1-0 overtime victory Monday, like every other game in the Stanley Cup playoffs, can’t be called a chess game until chess allows full contact and players get a few noisy seconds to make decisions instead of quiet, measured minutes.

The playoffs are less a board game than a test of endurance and emotions. And although the series is tied at two games each as the teams prepare for Game 5 tonight at Continental Airlines Arena, the Ducks may have gained an emotional edge after squeezing out two gritty overtime triumphs at the Arrowhead Pond.

“I think we are a little bit more comfortable. I think the first couple of games we just didn’t bring our game to the rink,” Duck goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said Wednesday after the team’s practice.

“Some of the guys might not feel comfortable playing in the Stanley Cup finals and all that. I think we saw in the third and fourth game that if we bring our game and legs to the rink, we’ll be able to have a chance to be successful.”

Make that their game, their legs, and their heads.

A key factor in the Ducks’ resurgence was their defensemen’s ability to jump up and join the rush. They’ve made quick, smart decisions to turn small openings into big plays, without abandoning their defensive responsibilities.

“That’s always part of our game plan,” defenseman Niclas Havelid said, “but in the first two games, they weren’t letting us do it. We started to find ways and we had some good opportunities.”

Said forward Adam Oates: “The better we’ve managed the puck, the more they can do that, because we’re in better position. In the first two games their forwards were all over [the Duck defensemen] and they’re so tired they can’t join the rush.”

In Game 3, Sandis Ozolinsh set up a goal and scored another, and Ruslan Salei scored the winner; Ozolinsh began the play on Steve Thomas’ winner in Game 4 with a pass to Sammy Pahlsson, whose shot was stopped by Martin Brodeur but caromed out to an unchecked Thomas. Defensemen took 10 of the Ducks’ 33 shots in Game 3 and nine of 27 in Game 4; they had taken three of the Ducks’ 16 shots in Game 1 and four of 16 in Game 2.

“It’s tough to defend a fourth guy coming into the rush. We’ve seen it from them, with [Scott] Niedermayer and [Brian] Rafalski,” Havelid said. “It’s not always easy to handle guys coming up from behind.

“You’ve got to be smart, you’ve got to read the play and choose your time to go. You have to see what’s on the scoreboard.”

After putting no goals on the scoreboard the first two games, the Ducks have broken through and can thank their defensemen for the impetus.

“We were being a little bit hesitant in the first two games. We were looking at each other instead of playing and using our hockey sense,” Ozolinsh said. “There was a little delay of a second or two, which doesn’t seem like much, but in these games it’s really a lot of time.

“In the third and fourth games we had more confidence handling the puck and we could better anticipate the play.”

Devil center John Madden said his team couldn’t sustain the forecheck it mounted in the first two games, and he credited the Ducks with making effective adjustments to bring their defensemen into the offense.

“When we soft-chipped it in the corner, they would send a forward back or a defenseman back and soft-dump it to the other side, where they had a D [defenseman] sitting there,” he said. “It just seemed like a long way to go for the other guy. In our system, we like to keep a third guy high, so it was kind of a safe zone for them and it worked perfectly for them.”

The Ducks also benefited from a bit of strategy Babcock has employed throughout the playoffs: using Thomas, Pahlsson and Stanislav Chistov together only sparingly early in the game but shortening his bench and giving them more ice time as the game wears on.

“It’s perceived like a plan, and actually it’s not,” he said. “It’s just the way the game works.”

Babcock sent that trio out to start the overtime period against Jeff Friesen, Sergei Brylin and Jamie Langenbrunner, and the Ducks won the game 39 seconds into sudden-death play.

“Sammy Pahlsson kills penalties, and all penalties in the playoffs are in the first and second period,” Babcock said. “So Sammy penalty kills and those guys are watching him. Then we need to get Sammy a break and get the other guys out. We get to the third period, which is when we go from four lines to three, as most teams do, and they get more ice time that way....

“Cheesy [Chistov] and Stumpy [Thomas], when it’s on the line, they can smell it. Those guys just take over the game.”

Tonight may determine who takes over the series.

“Games 1 and 2 they were chasing us, Games 3 and 4 we were chasing them,” Burns said. “We have to get it back.... If I knew those reasons [why they fell back] we wouldn’t be sitting here. We’d be celebrating. But we’re not.”

And maybe they never will.