Ducks answer back Stars

DALLAS -- Two days of the Ducks’ answering questions about the horrid performances in their first two games of the Western Conference quarterfinals was too much to take without some kind of retort.

The emphatic answer was on the ice in Game 3.

Shaking off blowout losses to the Dallas Stars at home, the Ducks showed they would not let their defense of the Stanley Cup end without a fight in a 4-2 victory that pulled them back into the best-of-seven series at the American Airlines Center.

It was a role reversal of 4-0 and 5-2 defeats in Anaheim that had the defending champions trying to rally around each other on the airplane ride here.

“I think we were embarrassed and disappointed with the way we’ve been playing in the first couple of games,” said goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who made 31 saves. “Those two days were a little long, and we wanted to get back at it.

“At the same time, it kind of gave us time to regroup and refocus. Get back to what we need to do to be successful.”

Coach Randy Carlyle sent a message early by pairing stars Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer as defense partners for regular shifts. Pronger responded with the first two-goal playoff game of his career after two insignificant games in Anaheim.

“It’s always nice to chip in, that’s for sure,” Pronger said. “Having said that, we had a lot of guys step up and obviously improve our game from the first two efforts in Anaheim. They weren’t some of our best, that’s for sure.”

There was support throughout the lineup. Todd Marchant and Ryan Getzlaf started a first-period splurge with goals on plays that Travis Moen and Brad May made happen by their tenacious forechecking in the Stars’ zone.

Moen set up Marchant’s goal when he got the puck after checking defenseman Mattias Norstrom into the boards and dropped it back to the center, who crashed the net and one-timed it past goalie Marty Turco.

“It was a great individual effort,” Marchant said of Moen’s play. “We’ve been preaching getting on the forecheck and making plays when we do get to the puck.”

May’s hard check on Norstrom forced the defenseman to get rid of the puck quickly. Steve Ott tried a cross-ice pass that was intercepted by Getzlaf, who beat Turco with a backhand for an unassisted goal.

Pronger’s first power-play goal of the night gave the Ducks a 3-0 lead heading into intermission and he would make it a four-goal lead in the second period with a slap shot past Turco on the Ducks’ eighth shot of the game.

“We were a much hungrier team tonight,” Carlyle said. “We scored two big power-play goals that helped lighten the load for us.”

Not that they would make it easy for themselves in the third period.

The Ducks slipped back into the mistake-prone mode they were in for Games 1 and 2 and their penalty-killing unit was again under attack.

Ryan Carter and Getzlaf took consecutive minor penalties and Brenden Morrow made them pay each time in a 1-minute 43-second span. Morrow scored on a redirected pass from Mike Modano and followed that up with a rebound of a shot by Modano.

The Ducks have given up eight power-play goals in the series and have allowed Dallas to score 17 in 11 total meetings this season.

The sellout crowd of 18,532 became boisterous when defenseman Mathieu Schneider took a four-minute double minor for high-sticking Morrow.

As their playoff lives flashed in front of their eyes, the Ducks buckled down and erased the penalty that allowed them to finish. Giguere made four saves during the kill and held tough when the Stars pulled Turco for an extra attacker in the final 88 seconds.

“They had just scored their two goals and obviously had gained momentum,” Pronger said.

Earlier this season, Ducks General Manager Brian Burke compared his team to a bear waking up at the zoo.

“He shakes out one limb, then another limb,” Burke said. “It’s a lengthy process, but when he’s awake, he’s a bear.”

--

eric.stephens@latimes.com