Lupul Doesn’t Disappoint His Family

The last thing winger Joffrey Lupul wanted was to have the Mighty Ducks get swept out of the playoffs by losing the final two games of the Western Conference finals in front of family and friends in Edmonton.

That’s one reason Lupul was smiling after scoring two decisive goals in a 6-3 victory over the Oilers on Thursday to keep the Ducks’ postseason alive.

“It would have been a bit of a nightmare coming here and getting swept,” said Lupul, who grew up near Edmonton in Fort Saskatchewan. “That’s definitely not the way we wanted this series to go.”

Lupul scored a momentum-turning goal late in the second period to give the Ducks a 5-3 lead. Edmonton had cut into the Ducks’ 3-0 first-period lead with a furious comeback.

“That was kind of a set play, even thought the puck didn’t come directly to me,” Lupul said about his goal from the right circle after a faceoff that was won by teammate Todd Marchant in the Edmonton zone. “[The puck] got stuck a little on [Edmonton forward] Ryan Smyth’s skate and he couldn’t find it. I just pulled it out and shot it quick.

“It was supposed to be a one-timer but the way that they’ve been blocking shots, maybe it worked out better.”

Said Edmonton Coach Craig MacTavish: “We weren’t puck conscious enough there on the faceoff, and Lupul was the only guy that had his eye on the puck. He dug it out of traffic and put it upstairs, and a real goal-scorer shot.”

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Edmonton expected Anaheim to start with momentum Thursday night after the Ducks’ strong play in the third period of Tuesday’s 5-4 loss. But the Oilers were more than backpedaling throughout the first period, being outshot, 25-3, and falling behind, 3-0.

“Obviously, we were a little uptight and I don’t know why,” Smyth said. “We were up 3-0 in the series and we should have taken the bull by the horns and got with it.”

The Oilers made a furious comeback in the second, but were not able to tie the score against goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who made key saves over the final 30 minutes.

“When a new goalie comes in who hasn’t played in a while, you want to get on top of him early and make him play the puck,” Smyth said. “We didn’t do that in the first.”

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The Ducks’ aggressive play resulted in five power-play opportunities -- including two, two-man advantages -- in the first period.

Although they only scored once, Lupul said forcing Edmonton to play short-handed boosted the Ducks’ confidence.

“We came out hard and made them take some penalties,” Lupul said. “Any time that you can get those power plays -- even though we didn’t score on a majority of them -- it shifted the momentum in our favor.”

But the Ducks finished only one of eight on the power play, which still isn’t good enough for Coach Randy Carlyle.

“It has to come to life for us to continue to have success,” said Carlyle about the Ducks, who are only one of 28 in the series.

“We’ve done some things and we’re going to make some adjustments and continue to tinker.”

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Dustin Penner’s first period goal not only gave the Ducks their first lead in the series, but it also marked the first time that the Oilers trailed in a game since Game 4 of their second-round series against San Jose.... MacTavish on his team’s first-period penalty woes: “There was some questionable calls I thought, but we deserved a lot of them.”

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The Oilers made changes in their lineup for Game 4, inserting wingers Raffi Torres and Radek Dvorak in place of center Toby Petersen and left wing Todd Harvey.

Torres was one of several players to contract a stomach virus Saturday night before Game 2.

The winger also missed Game 3 Tuesday night and said he lost 12 pounds because of the illness before he was able to eat again.

“I had a bagel,” he said. “Trying to load up. [Wednesday] was the first day of finally keeping it down. The day before that, I couldn’t really eat anything.”

Dvorak hasn’t played since Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against San Jose because of a right knee injury.

“We can only use the fresh legs at this time of year,” Edmonton Coach MacTavish said.

“We need a little bit more speed. I thought our speed [in Game 3] was not what it has been throughout these playoffs.”