What we learned from the Ducks’ 5-3 victory Saturday at Denver

What we learned from the Ducks’ 5-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday in Denver:

1) This is resilience: A team that started the season 1-7-2 and as late as Dec. 18 was tied for last in the NHL with Toronto and Columbus with 27 points each and a record of 11-14-5, can win the Pacific division Sunday with a win over the Washington Capitals, who have nothing at stake. The Ducks must win in order to edge out the Kings: One point wouldn’t be enough because the Kings hold the first tie-breaker, regulation and OT wins, 46-42. A loss by the Ducks would give the division title to the Kings.

2) Before leaving Denver for Washington—and before the Kings squandered their chance to clinch the division by giving up a 3-0 lead and losing, 4-3, in a shootout—Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said he might send some key players back to Southern California to rest if Sunday’s game had no meaning. With the division title at stake, he’s likely to play his regulars. On Saturday he held out only some injured players (Shawn Horcoff, Kevin Bieksa, Clayton Stoner, Brandon Pirri, Mike Santorelli, Sami Vatanen, David Perron and Rickard Rakell). Michael Sgarbossa, Nick Ritchie and Shea Theodore, called up from San Diego of the American Hockey League, got into the lineup.

3) A few days ago, when asked whether he’d rather face Nashville or San Jose in the first round, Boudreau said, “Pick your poison.” He repeated that Saturday. “They both have really good speed, they both really have a lot of good scoring talent,” he said. “We’re more familiar with San Jose than with Nashville but at the same time, I think the first round in the West, everybody is going to be a pick-‘em.”

Boudreau had a funny line after Saturday’s game, when Colorado Coach Patrick Roy stopped to wish him good luck in the playoffs. “That’s the first time he’s talked to me since he almost killed me,” Boudreau said, referring to hostility that erupted between the two coaches during Roy’s coaching debut in October 2013. Roy was fined $10,000 by the NHL for “irresponsible actions” that included pushing on the glass that separated the benches and getting into a shouting match with Boudreau.

4) Right wing Jakob Silfverberg, who had two goals on Saturday to reach 20 for the first time, said the Ducks had no one to blame but themselves for not beating the Kings on Thursday and temporarily giving the Kings control of the division championship. “It’s kind of our own fault. It’s the way it is,” he said. But they regained control of their playoff positioning by beating Colorado, and they did it by concentrating simply on improving their game so they could feel satisfied entering the playoffs. “Any time you go into situations like this where you don’t really know where you’re going to finish and what’s going to happen all you want to do is just focus on yourself and do the things that we want to do,” center Ryan Getzlaf said. “I thought we did a good job of getting that win…We needed to take care of our game and we did that.” Because they did, they will play for the Pacific division title Sunday.