A Little Bit of Everything in Duck Win

In a game that featured the odd, the weird and the strange, the Mighty Ducks somehow managed to pull out a 5-4 shootout victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.

The Ducks gave up a goal 23 seconds into the game. They got an absolute gift for one score and two other goals in a matter of seconds, only to fritter away a two-goal lead in the third period.

Finally, they put away the bottom-dwelling Blues at the Savvis Center, winning in overtime and by shootout for the first time this season when Chris Kunitz recorded the decisive goal after scoring twice in regulation.

“You’ve got to be ready for anything, I guess,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said.

Just about everything happened. But what mattered for the Ducks was Giguere’s work in the shootout after struggling previously in the NHL’s new tiebreaking format.

“It’s as big as any other two points,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said.

“Especially at this time of the season where we have to crank it up. We have to win some games on the road.”

It looked ominous for the Ducks (17-15-6) as they faced the prospect of losing the first two of a stretch of five consecutive road games.

St. Louis, with the NHL’s worst record at 9-22-5, scored three times in seven power-play chances with Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger getting man-advantage goals in the third to erase a 4-2 deficit.

As the score stayed tied through overtime and the shootout loomed, Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said he already had Kunitz in mind as one of his participants along with Joffrey Lupul and Petr Sykora.

“We haven’t had success, and we thought that we’d change it up a bit and give somebody else an opportunity,” Carlyle said.

Taking the second shot, Kunitz drew the Blues’ Curtis Sanford down with an excellent wrist fake before flipping it over the fallen goaltender on his backhand.

“It’s just depends on what the goalie is going to do, and you kind of react to him,” Kunitz said.

Giguere managed to foil all three St. Louis attempts after giving up five goals on his previous eight attempts in the Ducks’ three previous shootouts. After turning away Sillinger, he was greeted with a big bear hug by rookie center Zenon Konopka.

“Hopefully that’s going to give me a little bit of confidence going on,” Giguere said.

Before the Ducks or anyone else was paying attention, Jamal Mayers gave the Blues a 1-0 lead in the first 30 seconds, but Andy McDonald and Kunitz followed with goals 10 seconds apart to chase goalie Jason Bacashihua, whom they victimized three times in the first 9:41 of a 6-3 victory last week in Anaheim.

The Ducks made it 3-1 in the second, or rather the Blues did the honors, as a pass by Dean McAmmond back to the point for Dennis Wideman went wide of the defenseman and down the ice into an empty net as Sanford was pulled for an extra attacker on a delayed penalty.

Giguere was thought to have been the last Duck to touch the puck, but Vitaly Vishnevski was credited with his first goal of the season.

On a strange night, they’ll take anything.