Seeking Closing Statement

Just one more victory.

When you have played 95 most-important-games in one season, one more hardly seems to matter.

“That has definitely been the way we looked at the whole season,” Mighty Duck captain Paul Kariya said. “Each game is the most important game for us. It has been that way since training camp. That has paid off. Now, when we are faced with a game of real importance, our mind-set is the same as it has been all season.”

After using an over-the-top pitch for every game, to call tonight’s Western Conference final game against the Minnesota Wild “the most important game” may actually be selling it short.

The Ducks lead the series, 3-0, and are perched to swoop in on history ... their history. With a victory tonight, they will have reached the Stanley Cup final for the first time.

After all the five-year plans ... the mismanagement ... after the Teemu Selanne trade ... the Ron Wilson firing ... after yearly ticket price increases ... the promised summer of solutions ... German Titov

“I try not to look in the past or too far ahead in the future,” Kariya said. “I have always said that I wanted to win the Cup here and I wanted to finish my career in Anaheim.”

Some have thought in the past that Kariya’s career was finished in Anaheim ... for good.

The Ducks’ woeful past has been a haunting experience, a ghost that refused to be exorcised. Born into the NHL a joke in 1993, with a cutesy Disney-forged nickname that still has hockey purists turning up their noses, the Ducks have a chance to tweak those same noses.

“I have been to the final with New Jersey twice, but this will be a big moment for me,” said Duck winger Petr Sykora, who was acquired in a trade last summer. “In New Jersey, we were expected to be there every year. This team has never been there and no one thought it could. This could be the biggest moment in my life.”

“You know, the way we approached every game this season makes this business as usual,” Coach Mike Babcock said.

Ah, yes, the mantra. The Stepford Team was in unison Thursday, after Babcock read the script.

“They have been down, 3-1, twice before and came back to win,” Babcock said. “It’s probably understood, but, you know, I’m not leaving anything to chance.”

The Wild has won six elimination games this postseason, rallying to oust Colorado and Vancouver. Still, only two teams have won a playoff series after losing the first three games, the New York Islanders in 1975 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942.

“We are not going to get ahead of ourselves,” Kariya said. “That is a tough team we’re playing. They are not going to quit.”

“You have to be respectful of the other team,” Duck winger Steve Thomas said.

That was hardly the Wild’s mantra Wednesday.

The Wild was frustrated at being shutout a third consecutive game by goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who tied an NHL record with his third shutout in the series.

The Wild, who have had 98 shots turned away by Giguere, upped the ante in the third period, with physical play that seemed to cross the line at times.

Enforcer Matt Johnson charged the net and clobbered Giguere on one play, which resulted in a player pileup behind the net, where rookie defenseman Kurt Sauer clobbered Johnson.

Such tactics resulted in Babcock’s woofing at the other bench. He wasn’t complimenting the Wild on its spirited play.

“The first thing that happened when I woke up this morning, my kids were in bed and told me I had inappropriate behavior and now they had to go to Catholic school and answer for their dad acting his shoe size instead of his age,” Babcock said. “That won’t happen again.”

The behavior, sure. But the Wild’s plans will only get rougher.

“They are going to try to get into my kitchen,” Giguere said.

The Wild had 16 goals in its last three games against Vancouver to close out that series and has zilch against Giguere, who has stopped all 98 shots. The Wild’s power play, so effective in the first two rounds, has become inoffensive.

That may not be due entirely to Giguere, but he does deserve the lion’s share of credit. He has a shutout streak of 213 minutes, 17 seconds, a mere 35 minutes shy of the official NHL playoff record set by Detroit’s Normie Smith in 1936. (NHL officials are researching reports of a streak of 270:08 by Montreal’s George Hainsworth in 1930).

“The guys in front of me have been great,” Giguere said. “I can’t count all the blocked shots that didn’t get through. The defensemen are playing very well, the forwards are coming back helping them. When a shot does get through, I see it all the way.

“I don’t go out there thinking about getting shutouts. I just try to give my team a chance to win.”

He will try again tonight.