Ducks Win as Playoffs Beckon

Nothing has been locked up in the minds of the Mighty Ducks, but the ticket office may need to work a little longer than usual this season.

There is still some work left for the Ducks in their chase for a Stanley Cup playoff berth, but they certainly looked the part in a 6-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks as they edged closer to firming up their postseason plans Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond.

All signs are pointing in that direction. In setting a franchise record with their 24th home victory, the Ducks (39-23-12) have won eight of their last 10 and are 18-6-2 since Jan. 25.

The two points enable the Ducks to look to higher goals as they pursue the fourth playoff appearance in their 12-year history.

With eight games left in the regular season, they are in fifth place in the Western Conference, four points behind Nashville for home-ice advantage in the first round.

“I think we have played like a playoff team for a long time, but I think we can still do better,” forward Teemu Selanne said. “I’d rather try to catch Nashville and push forward than to worry about the teams behind us.”

With their team record-tying sixth consecutive home win, the Ducks continued their march with an accelerating offense. Selanne scored two goals, and Samuel Pahlsson supported the attack with the second two-goal game of his career.

Francois Beauchemin and Ryan Getzlaf also scored in a three-goal second period that blew open the game. Scott Niedermayer, Andy McDonald, Rob Niedermayer and Jonathan Hedstrom each had two assists.

Over the last 14 games, the Ducks have averaged nearly four goals.

“That’s great for me,” said goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who made 27 saves. “We’re scoring a lot of goals. My job doesn’t change, but it takes away the pressure a little bit.”

The Ducks set the tone for their relentless early attack when Todd Fedoruk knocked a lackadaisical Bryan Allen off the puck in the Vancouver zone to set up a shot by Getzlaf. Canuck goalie Alex Auld made the save, but that didn’t stop him from being peppered later.

After Todd Bertuzzi put the Canucks up 1-0 with a power-play goal, Selanne took advantage of a late-arriving Eric Weinrich on defense and scored the first of two Duck power-play goals. The right wing has 18 points in his last nine games.

Extra efforts were the order of the day. Pahlsson threw a hard check to force a turnover on the next shift and banged in a rebound 12 seconds later to finish a flurry in front of Auld.

Beauchemin started the second-period blitz when he blew a slap shot by Auld after Fedoruk and Getzlaf forced another Canuck turnover in their own zone.

Vancouver Coach Marc Crawford summoned Mika Noronen but couldn’t stop the bleeding.

“They had four lines rolling, and they’re obviously playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Canuck captain Markus Naslund said. “They were really the faster team tonight, there’s no doubt about it.”

The latest effort drew praise from Duck Coach Randy Carlyle.

“A lot of things have gone well for us,” Carlyle said. “The No. 1 derivative of that, in my mind, is we have worked extremely hard. Our work ethic is as strong as any team that I’ve been around.”

Pahlsson finished the period with a one-timer past the glove of Noronen off a feed from Hedstrom on an odd-man rush. It gave the Swedish checking center a career-high nine goals.

“I love to score goals,” said Pahlsson, who had two against Minnesota on March 3, 2004. “I haven’t gotten that many, but it’s fun to do it every once in a while.”

The time may have come to start printing up playoff tickets.

“We feel we can be one of the eight teams in the playoffs,” Giguere said. “We’ve felt that all along this year, even though sometimes it wasn’t so convincing at the beginning of the year.”