Ducks Ponder Why It All Went Wrong

Their eyes were too red and their disappointment too raw Monday for the Mighty Ducks to analyze where their Stanley Cup dream went astray and why the New Jersey Devils were hugging one another and carrying the treasured trophy around Continental Airlines Arena.

But when the Ducks look back at the Game 7 loss that left them slumped on the benches in their cramped locker room, they’ll realize their dream began to dim long before Michael Rupp came out of nowhere to score a goal and set up two others, and well before Jeff Friesen -- traded to the Devils by the Ducks last summer -- stuck it to his old team with a pair of goals in a Cup-deciding 3-0 victory.

Their grasp on the Cup, in truth, was loosened last Thursday in Game 5. In a series in which the home team won each game, that was the Ducks’ best opportunity to win a road game and take the upper hand.

They scored the first goal in that game, came back twice after the Devils had surged ahead and were tied at 3-3 more than nine minutes into the second period. Had they held on to win that game instead of watching the Devils go ahead on a goal directed in by Jay Pandolfo’s skate and escape with a 6-3 victory, the Ducks would have gone back to the Arrowhead Pond with a chance to win the Cup last Saturday.

The “ifs” and thoughts of what might have been were too tough for them to ponder Monday, with the sweat still sticky on their backs and the telltale redness of tears still coloring their eyes. Yet, as Steve Thomas acknowledged, Game 5 is the moment they will eventually pinpoint as their undoing, come the day they’re calm enough to examine what went wrong.

“That might have been the turning point,” Thomas said, struggling to keep his voice from breaking. “It would have been great to win Game 5 because we knew we would win Game 6.

“If we would have had home-ice advantage, we would have won the Stanley Cup. I truly believe that. To get this far without home ice, that’s something we have to be very proud of. That’s the sign of a great hockey team.”

They can’t truly be called a great team. Not yet, if ever. A great team would have found a way to win, as the Devils did Monday with excruciatingly tight defense and a refusal to relent.

The Ducks had many moments of brilliance during their four playoff rounds and many moments of excellence in the finals. What they never had was a road victory in the finals or the defensive steadiness on the road that they so confidently managed at home.

“It’s the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen and ever experienced in my life,” forward Marc Chouinard said. “It’s going to be tough to swallow.”

Especially because they appeared to have so many factors in their favor Monday, enough, perhaps, to outweigh their previous road woes.

Team captain Paul Kariya had rebounded from a staggering hit to score a goal in Game 6 and extend the Duck season one more game. Petr Sykora, no doubt emotionally torn playing against the team with which he won the Cup three years ago, had contributed a goal and two assists. Steve Rucchin had scored twice. They had chased Martin Brodeur from the nets.

And even 20 minutes into Monday’s game they were even, if on their heels after a strong New Jersey attack. But then came the second period and Rupp’s goal, which bounced between Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s pads, and Friesen’s first, born of Friesen’s toughness in outdueling Kurt Sauer for the puck and his persistence in knocking it home from the slot when the Duck defense couldn’t clear it.

But all that might not have happened if they’d held on to win Game 5, and the more defenseman Keith Carney thought about that, the more he thought it was true.

“It definitely would have helped if we’d won that game,” he said. “We knew going in that we had to win one game on the road. We didn’t get it done then, but we were confident going home that we could force a Game 7 and confident coming here that we could win Game 7.

“Game 5 was a tie game deep into the game and we came back from one-goal deficits a couple of times. We were really hanging in there and just couldn’t get that next goal to go ahead, and they did and gained momentum.”

Said forward Dan Bylsma: “That was certainly a pivotal game. We got out to a lead and this series was the type where the lead meant so much. It was crazy, that game. They got some bounces but they worked hard to get those bounces. But then we won Game 6 and gave ourselves another opportunity to come here and get a win here. This team has been outstanding at taking the next step all year.”

But this was the step on which they stumbled.

Because they weren’t good enough? Because the Devils, with considerably more playoff experience, were better able to adjust to adversity and climb to the pinnacle?

Those are questions for the Ducks to consider in the coming weeks. On Monday, all they could think was how close they had come and that they may never again reach this point.

“We’re definitely all better players and a better team,” Giguere said. “This is not where we wanted to be, but there’s a winner and a loser and next time the winner is going to be us.”

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Home Helps

*--* Home--ice advantage made a difference in the Stanley Cup finals. Mighty Duck numbers at home and away: at Pond at N.J 3 Games 4 9-3.0 Goals-avg 3-0.8 4-1.3 Avg. Goals against 15-3.8 10.8 Shooting pct 3.8 83-27.7 Shots-avg 79-19.8 85-28.3 Shots-avg. allowed 117-29.3 26-8.7 Penalty min.-avg 26-6.5 134-83 Face-offs 138-108 618 Face-offs pct 561 2-11 Power play 0-7 1-10 Penalty killing 2-11

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