Perry provides the smart moves

Corey Perry isn’t the swiftest of skaters.

The 21-year-old winger carries about 200 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame, so he’s not the brawniest guy who ever patrolled the right side in an NHL rink.

What he has, in abundance, is skill. And that hard-to-define but unmistakable gift called hockey sense, which he displayed to its finest advantage on Sunday.

Perry and his Ducks teammates made a few more mistakes than they should have been able to commit and still leave General Motors Place with a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks and a 2-1 lead in the teams’ second-round playoff series. Their perseverance tipped the balance in their favor and their penalty-killing atoned for everything else, reinforcing a lesson Perry absorbed as a rookie during the Ducks’ march to the Western Conference finals last season.

He learned that he can’t let himself be awed by the importance of the occasion and that things happen too quickly to relax for an instant. Most of all, he discovered what it takes to succeed, as have the other young players who are expected to carry the Ducks deep into the playoffs this spring and for many years to come.

“It’s experience, and realizing how hard it is to play in the playoffs,” said Perry, who had no goals and three assists in 11 playoff games last season but has two goals and five points in eight games against Minnesota and Vancouver.

“That’s a huge thing that we learned last year, as young guys, that you have to come to play every game. Every game’s a battle. Every game’s a grind. You’ve got to win those one-on-one battles and keep winning them. It could be the difference in a game or in the series.”

Perry made the difference Sunday on the Ducks’ first goal. He anticipated Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo’s clearing pass up the boards, intercepted it and spied linemate Dustin Penner heading for the net.

That was Perry’s hockey sense at work, a glimpse of the instincts that persuaded the Ducks to select him in the first round, 28th overall, in the 2003 entry draft.

“I just tried taking away the wall and making sure the puck didn’t get by me if it came up the strong side,” Perry said. “It came up there and I saw Pens out of the corner of my eye and I just tried to throw it to him to the front of the net.”

Penner was having none of Perry’s modesty.

“Corey was flying today,” Penner said. “He got in on the forecheck, made Luongo play it up the short side, pounced on it, threw in front to me, and I just had to put it in the open net.”

Perry was the finisher on the Ducks’ third goal, which stood as the winner thanks to the acrobatics of goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere during the Canucks’ frantic final flurry.

With Alex Burrows serving a delay of game penalty, Andy McDonald won a faceoff with Bryan Smolinski in Vancouver’s zone and slid the puck back toward the blue line. Chris Pronger passed to Perry, who saw Chris Kunitz screening Luongo.

“He’s playing well, but what he can’t see, he can’t stop,” Perry said. “That’s how we have to play. We have to keep getting traffic in front and keep going at the net hard.”

It’s easy to say and tough to do. Perry, though chagrined after taking a holding penalty in the second period and another in the third, did his job well on Sunday.

“He has a lot of skill, puck skills. He can score. He sees the ice,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Everybody would say, the biggest drawback if you watch him would probably be he’s not a great skater. But for a guy who doesn’t skate well he gets through the neutral zone very effectively.

“And down low he’s very, very tricky. He can curl, drag, lose checkers behind net. He does that extremely effectively. And he can find people.”

Penner, Perry and their center, Ryan Getzlaf were exceptional Sunday, with Getzlaf excelling defensively during eight Canucks power plays. Without being told, they stepped up on a night that Teemu Selanne, the Ducks’ top scorer this season, didn’t muster a shot on net, a night the Canucks hoped to ride the emotions of a Game 2 victory in Anaheim and draw energy from their fans.

“It’s a conscious effort for our line,” Penner said. “You see other guys battling, they’re leaders, and it makes you bring up your level of play.”

Selanne said Perry can be “as good as he wants. Talent-wise he’s unbelievable.

“It’s great to watch those kids on a daily basis. Every young player has been better this year. It was a good run last year. Everybody saw how tough it is and how much it takes. They want to be better, and they have been better.”

Perry is smart enough to know he must become better still.

“Randy and the coaching staff put a huge responsibility on us to perform every night,” Perry said. “We play in key roles in the game. We’ve got to stay focused and keep doing our job, and the rest will take care of itself.”

--

Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.