Ducks Are New Power in the West

It all could change tonight. Fortunes do shift in a day--sometimes in minutes--in the NHL this time of year.

But the Mighty Ducks left for Edmonton late Tuesday with a 5-2 grind-it-out victory over the Kings in the overhead compartment. The Ducks are tied with San Jose for the eighth and final playoff spot.

They also have eight games left, starting tonight against the seventh-place Oilers.

“The battle is still on,” right wing Teemu Selanne said. “We played a solid game, but that is not going to help us one bit against Edmonton. We have to bring our A game again.”

How much work they have left can be judged by how much work was needed to get Tuesday’s victory in front of 17,494 at Staples Center.

The Ducks scored their third goal with Antti Aalto and Matt Cullen flat on their backs. Cullen was falling when he centered to Kip Miller, who blasted the puck into the net for a 3-1 lead.

They got breathing room when Ladislav Kohn picked himself up off the ice to score for a 4-2 lead.

They got the game-clincher from Paul Kariya, who burst in from the neutral zone and scored as he was being pushed to the ice.

Of course, that seven-minute third-period rush had them falling forward, not falling down.

“Goals are hard to score right now,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “There are no easy shifts. You have to pay the price.”

The Ducks did ante up. They built a 2-0 lead in the first period, then withstood King challenges.

The last, and worst, when King defenseman Sean O’Donnell was called for spearing the Ducks’ Vitaly Vishnevski with 2 minutes 13 seconds left. O’Donnell also received a game misconduct.

On Friday, San Jose defenseman Bryan Marchment speared Kariya and received a three-game suspension. Hartsburg was already lobbying to take O’Donnell away from the Kings, who play the Ducks twice more this season.

“That was a lot like the Marchment one the other night,” Hartsburg said. “I’m sure the league will look at it.”

The 19-year-old Vishnevski was a target most of the game. Last Wednesday, he had roughed up the Kings, including a check that put Ziggy Palffy on the shelf for two weeks with a sprained shoulder.

The payback was apparent. When the Kings’ Luc Robitaille was called for elbowing defenseman Kevin Haller, he slid over to Vishnevski and gave him a elbow in the cheek.

“They came after [Vishnevski] and he did a good job of not retaliating.,” Hartsburg said. “I’m sure it had to do with Palffy.”

While the Kings--who are in a 0-3-1-1 slide--got a little chippy, the Ducks got more focused.

The victory was the Ducks’ third straight and pulled them within two points of Edmonton.

“We have been playing with a sense of urgency for the last two or three weeks now,” said Miller, who had a goal and two assists. “As long as we keep playing well and get good goaltending, good things will happen.”

All sorts of manna was showered on the Ducks Tuesday.

Goalie Guy Hebert was solid, stopping 26 of 28 shots. He has allowed no more than two goals in each of his last five starts.

The Ducks had four power plays through two periods and didn’t get a shot on three of them. The other, they got a goal without a shot.

Miller found Ted Donato just to the right of the net. Donato tried to center the puck, but had it ricochet off O’Donnell’s skate and into the net for a 1-0 lead at 7:55 of the first period.

Aalto made it 2-0, knocking in a rebound of Miller’s shot at 16:55.

Aalto? Miller? Donato? These aren’t the guys teams focus on when playing the Ducks.

“Our first line did the little things right and our fourth line did the little things right,” Hartsburg said.

Leaving the Ducks tied for a playoff spot.

“We don’t have the luxury to stop and look where we’re at right now,” Hartsburg said. “You start thinking about that stuff and you’ll fill your brain with garbage.”