Ducks win fight to the finish, 3-1

Amid all the chaos that surrounded and threatened to engulf them, the Ducks simply kept doing what they’ve been doing for nearly a month.

One would have to search long and hard for any artistic value in their 3-1 victory Friday night over the Calgary Flames, but the only thing that mattered to the Ducks was that it was their fifth win in a row on their seven-game homestand and their 10th win in 11 games.

It was done without Coach Randy Carlyle on the bench and captain Chris Pronger in a suit coaching the defense instead of leading the unit on the ice.

Assistant coach Dave Farrish filled in when Carlyle came down with a high fever Friday afternoon. Pronger missed his first game of the season because of a broken jaw suffered Sunday against Chicago.

But the Ducks persevered thanks to goals by Mathieu Schneider, Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne along with a sterling, 22-save effort by Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Farrish’s substitute job earned a “Randy who?” response from a smiling General Manager Brian Burke afterward but the 51-year-old assistant’s thoughts were on Carlyle.

“I was more concerned about Randy obviously,” Farrish said. “It takes a pretty good punch to knock him down. And obviously he was hurting big-time in order to miss a game.

“Our players are pretty self-coachable on most nights. They understand their roles and everything else very well. I think they all kind of put a little extra in tonight as well. Obviously Jiggy was phenomenal tonight. He was the big reason for our success.”

The Ducks (37-23-7) won a physical affair as two weeks apart didn’t cool the hostilities between the teams.

The fourth and final meeting only seemed to pick up from the Ducks’ 4-2 victory on Feb. 17 which ended with winger Travis Moen fighting Calgary captain Jarome Iginla and enforcer George Parros going after Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf with his right knee.

It didn’t take long for the teams to get at each other. Just over five minutes in, Corey Perry, who was targeted often in the last meeting, got underneath Phaneuf’s skin and the hard-hitting defender forced him to the ice and stood over him. Todd Bertuzzi took exception and dropped gloves with Phaneuf.

Three separate skirmishes broke out in the final minute of the period with players on each team trying to goad their combatants into another fight.

Perry drew a double minor penalty for spearing and two more minutes for roughing the Flames’ Mark Smith, who received four minutes for roughing. Phaneuf and Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf renewed their on-ice rivalry that dates to their days in the Western League.

Forty-six of the game’s 82 penalty minutes took place in the first period alone. Still, the Ducks managed a 2-0 lead as Schneider and Niedermayer pumped in goals, the second one coming on the power play.

“We showed that we can keep our composure,” Giguere said. “The word around the league sometimes is that if you hit us, you can get us out of our game. I think they’re the ones that got out of their game.”

All in all, it was a gritty reminder of the bruising seven-game playoff series two years ago that started the Ducks’ march to becoming one of the Western Conference’s elite teams.

“That’s what happens when you have a hard-fought playoff series,” Niedermayer said. “They’re a physical team. We have guys that are physical. It doesn’t get forgotten easily.”

Bertuzzi earned an automatic toss from the game because he didn’t have his sweater tied down to his pants when he fought Phaneuf to start the wild first period.

NHL rules specify that a player who engages in fisticuffs and doesn’t have his sweater properly tied-down shall receive a game misconduct.

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eric.stephens@latimes.com