Ducks Make It Two in a Row

The significance of Sunday’s game with the Chicago Blackhawks wasn’t lost on Mighty Duck rookie Ilya Bryzgalov.

Though Bryzgalov’s first priority was the Ducks, the game was an opportunity for the Russian to show something to his country’s hockey federation as the Turin Olympics approach.

And although Bryzgalov doesn’t know the Blackhawks’ Nikolai Khabibulin personally, he knows enough about his fellow Russian netminder.

“That’s a guy who’s the one Russian goalie to win the Stanley Cup,” Bryzgalov said. “He’s a great goalie. It’s a great feeling to beat him.”

The 25-year-old goalie also turned heads among the Duck brass with another strong performance, as he upstaged Khabibulin in a 3-1 victory at the Arrowhead Pond that gave the Ducks consecutive wins for the first time in nearly a month.

Teemu Selanne and Joffrey Lupul broke open a scoreless game in the third period to give the Ducks three wins in four games after a franchise record-tying eight-game losing streak. Rob Niedermayer added an empty-net goal.

Bryzgalov stopped 34 shots in his fourth consecutive start in place of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, on injured reserve because of a strained left hamstring. Chicago’s Mark Bell ruined Bryzgalov’s attempt at his first NHL shutout when he scored with 1 minutes, 58 seconds remaining.

The young goalie had been solid in four starts during the losing streak, but his play has risen another notch in the last four games, as he has allowed only six goals during that span. Despite a 4-8-0 record, Bryzgalov has a strong .913 save percentage.

“He hasn’t really thrown a poor one,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “His record doesn’t indicate that, but the team that’s played in front of him has been suspect at times too.”

Bryzgalov held firm when the Ducks needed him to as they sleepwalked through the first period, despite being off Saturday. At one point they went 14 minutes without a shot on goal and were outshot, 13-3.

They were still listless until the second when they got consecutive power plays and started attacking Khabibulin. Carlyle said he figured that the sluggish play was because of a number of Ducks battling the stomach flu.

“We were downright ugly,” Carlyle said. “But we found a way to get some things going in the second period. What we really tried to do is collectively be 10% better as a group.

“I think we were hanging on our goaltender way, way too much early in the game and then we found a way to get some energy going,” he said.

The Blackhawks were just as ineffective offensively and the Ducks bought time until the third when Selanne provided a goal at 9:29 of the third period by punching it past Khabibulin off an Andy McDonald pass.

The 35-year-old forward has scored in four consecutive games and has five goals in the last six. Selanne has 14 for the season after netting only 16 for the Colorado Avalanche in 2003-04.

“Goal scoring is a magic thing,” said Selanne, who has 466 career goals. “It’s a great feeling when you start reading the game and the puck is really following you.”

Lupul hopes that some of the magic is rubbing off on him. The second-year forward, still bothered by a stiff neck, got his first goal in his last 10 games with a backhand to finish a two-on-one rush with Jonathan Hedstrom.

“We didn’t have our best today, but I think the bottom line is we found a way to win and that’s something we hadn’t been doing,” he said.