Playoff Push Now Is More Than Talk

For all their talk about making a playoff push, the Mighty Ducks spent many weeks skating around in circles.

The Ducks are now backing up their talk with a 6-1-3 stretch since a regulation loss Jan. 7 at Minnesota and head into tonight’s game against the San Jose Sharks with a three-game winning streak.

The Ducks pulled to within three points of a playoff spot in the Western Conference after Monday night’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Kings. Team captain Scott Niedermayer said that kind of victory can help maintain momentum.

“It helps the attitude,” Niedermayer said. “It helps everyone in here realize what we have to do to try and win. It takes extremely hard work from everybody. That’s what we’ve been doing the last few games.”

The Ducks are 16-6-6 since Thanksgiving when they fell to 8-11-4 with a loss at Dallas. Niedermayer said they must continue to surge upward.

“We have to keep doing that,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll be back where we were. If we want to make this real interesting, we have to battle every game.”

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Right wing Teemu Selanne took time Tuesday to reminisce, a day after scoring two goals to reach 1,000 points for his career.

“You know, I think getting 1,000 points is incredible,” he said. “When I was a little boy, I could never dream about getting 1,000 points in this league. Obviously, I’ve been very, very lucky to play with so many great players that helped me so much.”

Selanne, who joins Jari Kurri as the only Finnish players to reach that mark, also talked about the Winter Olympics and said he likes Finland’s chances despite the absence of goalies Miikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen, who are using the two-week break to nurse injuries.

“I think it’s an easier situation to go into a tournament where you have pretty much nothing to lose,” Selanne said. “When you are the favorite, you have a different kind of pressure and the pressure is not always easy to handle.”

TONIGHT

vs. San Jose, 7:30, FSN West 2

Site -- Arrowhead Pond.

Radio -- 1090.

Records -- Ducks 24-17-10; Sharks 23-19-7.

Record vs. Sharks -- 2-1-1.

Update -- Duck goalie Ilya Bryzgalov has started the last three games after posting his first career shutout in a 2-0 victory over the Sharks last week in San Jose.

Tickets -- (877) 945-3946.