Real Selanne Stood Up This Season

Teemu Selanne pleaded innocent.

The Mighty Duck media guide shows he struggled through the 2003-04 season with the Colorado Avalanche. Didn’t happen, Selanne tried to claim Friday.

“That was my twin brother,” Selanne said with a big grin and a wink. “He’s a schoolteacher. I took the year off.”

Although Selanne indeed has a twin brother, Paavo, who is a schoolteacher, the truth ends there, and the DNA (does need alibi) is apparent.

So with the Ducks facing the Avalanche in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Selanne was well-prepared to deflect questions about a season with the Avalanche that he spent playing on a bum left knee.

“That’s in the past, let’s move on,” Selanne said.

The 2003-04 season was hard on Selanne, who went to the Avalanche with Paul Kariya as a free-agent package in a calculated move to try to win the Stanley Cup. Selanne spent the season skating, more or less, on one leg, finishing with career lows for goals (16) and points (32).

He underwent surgery on the knee in September 2004 and signed with the Ducks last summer. Selanne bounced back with a 40-goal season.

“There were a lot of reasons [for the 2003-04 season], but my knee was the main one,” Selanne said. “It was a tough year. I couldn’t use my speed. It’s like night and day now.”

Selanne had only two goals in the Avalanche’s final 23 regular-season games in 2003-04. He had none in 10 playoff games, with the Avalanche losing in the second round to San Jose.

Meanwhile, Paavo Selanne spent the year teaching school.

“He was a goaltender, but I took all his confidence when we were kids,” Selanne said. “He did all my work to get me through school.”

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The NHL moved Games 6 and 7 of the Duck-Avalanche series to accommodate television. Game 6, if one is needed, would be May 16 in Denver and Game 7 would be May 18 in Anaheim, with game times to be announced later.

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Rookie forward Corey Perry did not play Friday after injuring his right knee in Game 7 of the Ducks’ first-round series against Calgary when he collided with teammate Samuel Pahlsson in the second period.

Perry skated Friday morning and reported some lingering pain and stiffness but said he doesn’t think the injury is serious.

“I was concerned,” he said. “I definitely didn’t feel good, that’s for sure. There’s always concern with your knee. You never know what could happen to it.”

Perry said he didn’t see Pahlsson jump off the bench when he skated back into his own zone. The right wing, who was helped off the ice by teammates, returned to the bench in the third period.

“It’s more or less the shock of it,” he said. “You’re not expecting to get hit.”

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Left wing Todd Fedoruk’s wife, Theresa, gave birth to a baby girl, Sienna Rae, early Friday morning in Philadelphia. She is the couple’s second child. Fedoruk returned to Anaheim in the afternoon and was in the Duck lineup.... Colorado veteran center Pierre Turgeon was a healthy scratch. He also was scratched in the Avalanche’s Game 5 series-clinching win over Dallas.... Tickets for a possible Game 5 and Game 7 will go on sale at 9 a.m. Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond box office, at mightyducks.com and Ticketmaster locations.