Ducks Ride Another Hot Goalie to Victory

If there was one thing the Mighty Ducks could be certain about entering this season, it was that their goaltender was going to win some games for them.

They just didn’t know that Martin Gerber was going to be that goaltender.

Gerber’s 38-save performance in a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday will keep Jean-Sebastien Giguere as a $5-million backup goalie for now. Gerber will start tonight against the Washington Capitals and everyone, from Giguere to the 17,902 at Madison Square Garden, saw that decision as a no-brainer.

Sandis Ozolinsh, Niclas Havelid and Ron Niedermayer scored goals. Sergei Fedorov assisted on two power-play goals. But it was Gerber who got a six-game trip started with a victory.

“The best player in the game tonight was Gerber, there is no question about that,” Coach Mike Babcock said.

Which paid off for the Ducks, who despite a woeful start are now two points behind Dallas, the first-place team in the Pacific Division.

“We need this road trip,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said. “We need to get going every game. This is something we can build on.”

Gerber was the foundation Tuesday.

He stopped 17 of 18 shots in the third period alone, missing only a blue-line shot by Alex Kovalev that hit the right post and ricocheted into the net. By then the Ducks had a 3-0 lead.

This was against a Ranger team that has only 12 goals in seven games and has the only scoreless power play in the NHL, at 0 for 30 and counting. Still, the amount of activity made difficult work for Gerber.

“They were shooting from everywhere, just trying to get [the puck] on the blue paint,” Salei said. “Gerbs was unbelievable. He got the rebounds into the corner or held onto the puck.”

This hardly comes as a surprise to the Ducks. Gerber has given up only two goals in his last three starts, one of which was redirected in by Duck defenseman Todd Simpson in Sunday’s 1-1 tie with Chicago.

It can be enough to make a coach elated and nervous at the same time, especially when his other goalie just signed a four-year, $20-million contract.

“Let’s not kid ourselves here, there is no controversy here,” Babcock said. “Gerbs is hot and Jiggy is trying to get his game back. So Gerbs is going to run with it a bit.”

A situation Gerber handles with a low-pulse-rate personality. Mostly.

Told he was starting tonight against the Capitals, he reacted like a kid on a sugar rush, blurting out, “Seriously?”

“Gerbs is a quiet guy,” Salei said. “He’s in his own world. He is really a normal guy. In my experience, I have seen lots of weird goalies.”

Gerber was sharp at the start and had to be. He turned away several Ranger opportunities in the first period.

“You need your goaltender to stop five or six chances,” Fedorov said. “Then his job is done.”

The Ducks made that job easier with a novel approach for them. Their defensemen scored goals instead of setting them up for the other team.

Ozolinsh took a pass from Samuel Pahlsson and fired a shot from just inside the blue line that deflected off Ranger defenseman Tom Poti for a 1-0 lead 9:51 into the game. Havelid then sent a shot through traffic for a power-play goal to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead 14:42 into the period.

Niedermayer redirected a Fedorov shot at 9:34 of the second period for a 3-0 lead.

“This [road trip] is everything for us,” Babcock said. “We’ve been a ... I don’t know what we’ve been. We’ve been an interesting group in that we haven’t sustained a game for 60 minutes. Tonight when we weren’t great, I still thought we were working. To me, that’s everything. If you work you have a place to start.”