Giguere sets up delivery for Ducks

It is an act the Detroit Red Wings have seen before. Not to mention all of hockey.

The sight of Jean-Sebastien Giguere making save after save in front of an astonished red-and-white-clad crowd at Joe Louis Arena to keep an overwhelmed Ducks team in a playoff game long enough for a teammate to reward him with a dramatic overtime goal.

Four years ago, Paul Kariya delivered in Game 1 of a first-round series that the Ducks won in a shocking sweep. On Sunday, Teemu Selanne put the Ducks one win away from the Stanley Cup finals with his winner in Game 5.

Neither of those moments would have occurred if Giguere hadn’t carried the load. In the Western Conference finals, if not this entire postseason, the veteran goaltender has only added to his extensive playoff resume.

Tonight, the Ducks can oust the Red Wings in Game 6 at what figures to be a revved-up Honda Center. And they are largely in this position because of the 30-year-old wall in front of their net.

“He has been the reason we’ve had a chance to win,” Selanne said of Giguere. “We all know that everything starts from the goaltender. What can you say? You can’t say anything more.

“He has done everything that we’ve asked of him and more.”

To a man, the Ducks acknowledge they haven’t played well in the last three games. After being pulled in the Game 3 rout, Giguere came back with consecutive 36-save performances to ward off the Red Wings while the rest of the team found its game.

Perhaps a new motivation, too, is what Giguere found at his home after last Tuesday’s 5-0 loss.

“I got toilet papered at my home by Red Wings fans, so I’ve got to raise my level here,” Giguere said Monday. “That’s not a lie. I did get toilet papered.”

Raising his level is not said lightly. Mike Babcock, the Detroit coach, knows all too well what Giguere can do.

It was Game 1 of the first round of the 2003 playoffs, and Babcock was behind the Ducks’ bench as a star-studded Detroit team pummeled the goalie with 64 shots. Giguere, in what was his first NHL playoff game, repelled all but one before Kariya won it in triple overtime.

It was the liftoff to a run that didn’t end until Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Giguere became the fifth player from a losing team to win the Conn Smythe trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs.

Babcock, with his Red Wings facing elimination, did his best to steer clear of any further buildup of his former netminder.

“I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about that,” Babcock said, responding to a question about Giguere’s play in the 2003 playoffs. “Their team is different than the team was in ’03 ... their team is way better.

“Our team had to rely in the first round on Jiggy and then as our confidence built, we could play defense.... Their team has weapons. Our team didn’t have that at all.”

Ever the one to downplay his achievements, Giguere said he wasn’t playing any better at this moment. But the Montreal native has been the equal of Detroit’s heralded Dominik Hasek in this series.

Giguere has faced 135 shots and given up 12 goals. Hasek has faced 142 and let in 11.

For these playoffs, Giguere is 8-3 with a 1.78 goals-against average and has only given up one overtime playoff goal over a span of 250 minutes 44 seconds.

But he says his 12-1 career overtime record is because of “guys like Teemu scoring some big goals for me.”

“I can’t control what we do offensively,” said Giguere, who turned 30 last week. “I can’t control how Hasek is playing. I can only control what I bring to the game and to the ice. I know if I kept playing my game, we would have a chance at the end. And we took advantage of it.”

Yet Giguere has been overshadowed.

If it wasn’t Minnesota’s Niklas Backstrom winning raves for his play in net in the first round, it was Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo being fawned over in the second round. Now it’s 42-year-old Hasek, a six-time Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goalie.

At the beginning of this series, Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger chided the media for ignoring what Giguere has done in this postseason.

“We have full faith in Jiggy,” Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said. “We don’t need all the press for him. Jiggy’s doing his job and we’re appreciating it more than anything. We let him know when he gets in the room.”

Selanne said the only reason Giguere gets overlooked as one of the league’s best goalies is because of where he plays.

“If he were anywhere else, let’s say in Canada, he would be as big as Luongo,” he said. “Maybe even bigger.”

Detroit’s Chris Osgood, a 13-year veteran, said players around the league aren’t unaware of Giguere’s ability, but being on the West Coast hurts him.

“Not enough people around the league get a chance to see him,” Osgood said. “If they’re playing on TV, it’s not until late out East and hardly any people are going to be watching.”

For Giguere, the lack of attention isn’t important. “I’ve been here for seven years now so I know how things work,” he said. “I’m pretty happy with that. I don’t really care, to be honest.”

From the beginning of the playoffs when he was an emotional wreck in dealing with his infant son’s eye condition, Giguere has now become a tower of strength for a team that has become dependent on him.

“Mentally, he is one of the strongest individuals I have ever met,” Ducks center Todd Marchant said. “He comes to the rink and works hard no matter what the situation or what day it is. Hates when you score on him no matter what and it shows in his play.

“We’re lucky to have him.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com