It’s All Blanks to Giguere

Mighty Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was as poker-faced as ever Monday. There was little indication that everything is aces these days.

His response was the same as ever, low-key, with a smirk and an eye-on-the-prize philosophy. Giguere, whom the Ducks anointed their No. 1 goalie in June, gave up 19 goals in his first six games, which was a big reason for the Ducks’ 3-6-3 start. Yet he never seemed nonplused.

Nor does he now that things are going better.

Giguere recorded a team-record third consecutive shutout Sunday. He didn’t have to overexert himself in the 5-0 victory over Pittsburgh as he extended his goal-less streak to 200 minutes 15 seconds, also a team record.

But Giguere is not ready to pound his chest.

“I just focus on the next game, that’s the challenge,” said Giguere, who, at 25, is fulfilling the promise that led Hartford to make him the 13th player chosen overall in the 1995 draft. “I know I am going to have bad days -- a bad game, a bad practice. So whatever happened this last week, didn’t happen.”

He is the foundation on which the Ducks have based their season.

He is 5-1-1 in his last seven games, during which he has given up only nine goals and lowered his goals-against average to 2.22. He is tied for third in the NHL with four shutouts.

“You play defense as a team and we have done a pretty good job of it,” team captain Paul Kariya said. “But when we do make a mistake, ‘Jiggy’ is there to make the save. You have to get great goaltending to be successful in this league.”

The Ducks are 10-3-3-3 since Nov. 6 and have moved into second place in the Pacific Division. They are four games over .500 for the first time since December 1999.

Giguere has had much to do with that. He has given up more than two goals only four times in that span.

“The better your goalie is, the harder the guys play for him,” Coach Mike Babcock said. “When he is in there, battling for you, you’re more apt to battle for him. If he’s a dog, you’re not likely to get ‘er going. When you’re the meal ticket, you’re the meal ticket.”

Giguere has handled that duty with a lunch pail approach.

“Even when he was struggling earlier this season, goaltending wasn’t an issue to me,” Kariya said. “Not with the way he works and the time he puts in.”

Giguere was reared as a goalie in Montreal, using one of the NHL’s best as his role model. He went to the Montreal Forum to root for the Quebec Nordiques, making him a picked-on minority. But while the Nordiques had his heart, Giguere knew his soul belonged to a young Canadien goalie, Patrick Roy, whose moves he watched and copied.

Giguere must have taken good notes. Before Sunday, Roy was the last NHL goalie to have three consecutive shutouts, which he accomplished last season.

But Giguere didn’t have the rapid ride to the top Roy enjoyed. He meandered through a yo-yo existence in Hartford and Calgary. He spent three seasons shuttling between the NHL and the minor leagues.

“I really never got a chance, and I wondered if I was good enough,” Giguere said.

That question was answered when the Ducks plucked him from the Flames for a second-round pick in June 2000. The Flames, overstocked at goalie, needed to unload one before the expansion draft. It wasn’t out-and-out thievery by the Ducks, but it was pretty close.

Giguere played 34 games for the Ducks in 2000-01, mostly at the end of the season.

“That is when I knew I could play in the NHL,” Giguere said. “I finally got to test myself.”

Last season, Giguere was the best-kept goalie secret in the NHL, his play camouflaged by a 20-25-6 record. He competed with Steve Shields, but the competition didn’t last long. By December, it was clear who was No. 1. Giguere finished fifth with a 2.13 goals-against average and tied for fifth with a .920 save percentage in 53 games. Shields was traded to Boston in June, and Giguere had to adjust to a new role.

“You go from being a guy who was battling for a job to a guy who has the job, that’s a whole different thing,” Babcock said. “But it is pretty obvious that Jiggy and [Columbus’] Marc Denis are the next wave of guys.”

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Hot Goalie

*--* Statistics for Mighty Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere in his last seven games: Record 5-1-1 Goals against 1.48 Save pct. .938 Shutouts 3

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