Confident Group Plays Close to a Perfect Game

There is no such thing as a perfect hockey game. The ice is slippery, the puck can be skittish, and skates and sticks have a way of redirecting shots where they weren’t meant to go.

That said, the Mighty Ducks on Wednesday played as well as it is possible to play a seventh game of a playoff series in a hostile rink. They parted the Sea of Red at Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome with confidence and poise, wearing the Flames down for a 3-0 victory that deprived the Flames’ faithful of an anticipated second-round Battle of Alberta with the Edmonton Oilers.

But as those fans drifted off into the cold, clear spring night, one prominent Duck supporter remained behind.

“Right now, I’m pulling for Anaheim, big time,” said Flame Coach Darryl Sutter, who delivered that message to the victors and shook as many hands as he could find in the visitors’ locker room.

He respected the Ducks’ accomplishment because his team’s style was so similar, and because he could acknowledge that the Ducks did it better.

The Ducks, supposedly speed-oriented and reliant on skill, banged and battled with greater verve than the Flames. The Ducks’ defense, penalty-prone early in the season and reconfigured at the trade deadline, was as physical and generally steadier than the Flames’ defense. The Ducks’ forwards, though lacking a Jarome Iginla to carry them on his back, delivered a fine group effort that paid attention to detail in every zone, at every point of every game.

“It’s amazing,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said as the Ducks packed their gear for the trip home and a second-round matchup against Colorado that will start Friday and will give them the luxury of home-ice advantage.

“It’s Canada and you know the fans are crazy here. It’s nice to shut them up -- in a good way, of course. They have great fans. I give them all the credit.”

All credit Wednesday was due the Ducks, who were led by a goaltender who cited Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Socrates when asked about his goaltending philosophy, a graybeard defenseman who never faltered when his teammates -- or opponents -- leaned on him, and a rugged defender whose transition from the clutch-and-grab NHL to the new, offense-friendly game has had its difficult moments.

Ilya Bryzgalov, the unflappable philosopher goalie, stopped 22 shots and wondered why anyone would ask whether he had felt any pressure. The shutout “is not a big deal,” said Bryzgalov, who took over from 2003 playoff hero Jean-Sebastien Giguere in Game 5.

“It’s just a game. A game you want to win, yes, but just a game.”

The graybeard is Scott Niedermayer, who was magnificent Wednesday in playing 28 minutes, 33 seconds worth of smooth, smart hockey.

“We always knew this was possible,” said Niedermayer, who won the Norris Trophy in 2004 as the NHL’s top defenseman and is likely to be among the three finalists for this season’s honors when the contenders are announced today. “Early on, things were rough, but we still believed.

“We knew they were going to come out hard tonight, but I felt that we were ready to go.”

The defender who was so slow to adjust to the crackdown on obstruction was Salei, who had joked this season that no game was official unless he had gotten at least one hooking or holding penalty.

He took merely three minor penalties in the series and stayed out of the box entirely Wednesday, giving himself a chance to make the first pass on the Ducks’ first goal and score their second goal on a high, quick shot that stymied Miikka Kiprusoff.

“He stopped grabbing people and started skating more,” Duck General Manager Brian Burke said. “He was really strong tonight. I think our defense is underrated.”

Salei said that it wasn’t so much that the Ducks beat the Flames at their own game as it was the Ducks making the most of their size, skill and smarts.

“It’s a really important game, and as soon as we got the lead we had to play as simple as possible,” he said. “As soon as anything happened, a mistake or a turnover, Bryz was there.”

Salei is among the handful of Ducks who were there in 2003, when they upset Detroit, Dallas and Minnesota before losing to the New Jersey Devils in a seven-game Stanley Cup final. Like three years ago, the Ducks were the underdog in the first round, but Salei said the comparisons end there.

“Every year is different,” said Salei, who can become an unrestricted free agent after the season. “We had an unbelievable run. I hope we’re as lucky as the last playoff run and we go all the way this time, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves.”

The playoff schedule prevents them from doing that, anyway. Less than 48 hours after they have stripped off their sweaty pads and skates, they will face the Avalanche, which upset Dallas last week. “Kind of them,” Niedermayer said of the NHL’s schedule makers. “Away we go.”

Up, up and away, indeed.