Ducks’ Win Reminder of 2003

VANCOUVER, Canada —  It was last spring all over again for the Mighty Ducks.

Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stood tall and confident, adding a celebratory fist-pump after he thrust out his left pad to stop a potential game-tying penalty shot by Daniel Sedin.

The offense sprang from unlikely sources: defenseman Todd Simpson, who has never been mistaken for Bobby Orr, and from Vaclav Prospal, who got second billing to Sergei Fedorov in the Ducks’ free-agent signings last summer and has had a second-rate season that included a 17-game goal drought. The forwards were strong on the puck. The special teams were efficient.

“That was the hockey we played last year in the playoffs,” Giguere said after stopping 24 shots in a 2-1 victory at GM Place and ending the Ducks’ 0-5-3 streak one short of tying a club record. “We played good defense and we capitalized on our chances....

“Today, I wanted to give myself a chance to win, to go out there and just play instead of always worrying about what’s going to happen, and what if they score. My mental focus was much better tonight than any other night, and I thought as a team we played extremely well.”

Well enough to compare favorably, for once, to their performances last spring. Everything they have done and will do will be measured against their run to the Stanley Cup finals, and for most of this season, they’ve suffered by comparison. But after so many disappointments and falling so far behind the West playoff contenders, they finally were rewarded for an all-around solid effort.

“The bottom line is for me and for everybody, we’ve got to take advantage of this and use this as a springboard for us,” said center Steve Rucchin, who has been hobbled by a sore knee but looked strong on the puck and along the boards Saturday. “It’s going to take a lot more effort, but we’ve got to take the positives from this.”

And there were many positives to ponder on their flight back to California.

Although they fell behind at 10:04 of the first period on a spectacular, coast-to-coast, highlight-reel goal on which Henrik Sedin slid the puck through the legs of Duck defenseman Niclas Havelid and slipped a backhander past Giguere, they weren’t rattled. They withstood the Canucks’ physical play and pulled even at 2:16 of the second period, when Simpson, from a sharp angle, banked the puck off goalie Dan Cloutier.

As for where the sudden offensive prowess has come in for a rugged defenseman who scored 10 goals in the first 467 games of his career and has scored four in the last six, even he doesn’t know. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m not used to scoring so much.”

Prospal seemingly forgot how, going 17 games without a goal until 10:40 of the second period Saturday. Simpson began the play with a diagonal pass out of the left corner to Rucchin on the right wing; Rucchin passed to Joffrey Lupul, who slid a pass under the stick of Vancouver’s Marek Malik and to Prospal, who didn’t miss.

“We don’t have too many hot guys on the team right now,” Prospal said. “Whoever can score a goal is a big plus.”

Giguere’s ability to prevent goals proved equally crucial after Vitaly Vishnevski pulled down Daniel Sedin, who was awarded the penalty shot at 18:01 of the second period.

As the crowd of 18,630 roared in anticipation, Sedin skated slowly toward Giguere, trying to force the goalie to make the first move. Finally, Sedin went to his backhand, but Giguere stopped it -- his second success in the three career penalty shots against him -- and allowed himself a brief moment of exultation.

“He’s a very skilled player and he seems to be very patient, holding onto the puck until the last second,” Giguere said. “I didn’t want to give him anything to shoot at.”

The victory, he said, “was a little bit of a relief. We were more than due and I was more than due.” Which is better than being done.

“For us to score two, three goals, it takes a lot of shots,” Prospal said. “This has got to be a big step for us confidence-wise.”

*

Left wing Chris Kunitz, promoted Friday from Cincinnati, played 14 shifts and had 7 minutes 7 seconds’ ice time in his NHL debut. Kunitz, whose parents flew to Vancouver from Regina, Saskatchewan early Saturday to see him play, flanked Samuel Pahlsson and Stanislav Chistov....Michael Holmqvist sustained a pulled stomach muscle and didn’t play in the third period.