Ducks Absorb Crucial Blow

By Eric Stephens

April 30, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

CALGARY, Canada — The first four games of this Western Conference first-round series have seen the Mighty Ducks and Calgary Flames trade more punches than a pay-per-view heavyweight bout.

In a pivotal Game 5 on Saturday night, the Flames delivered one knockout blow to a former playoff hero and put the rest of the Ducks on the ropes.

Jarome Iginla gave them a heavyweight performance with two goals that led them to a deceptively easy 3-2 victory that pushed the Ducks to the brink of elimination and eased some of the anxiety of the Flames’ red-clad faithful at Pengrowth Saddledome.

Many of the devoted locals didn’t count on the upstart Ducks pushing their Northwest Division champions to a Game 6, which will take place Monday night at the Arrowhead Pond. Newspapers and talk shows seemed to suggest the Flames were in big trouble after their Game 4 overtime loss.

Instead, Calgary looked like a team readying itself for another long playoff run after marching to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in 2003-04 before losing to Tampa Bay. The Ducks have to climb out of another deficit after tying the series twice.

“We’re going to be motivated,” Scott Niedermayer said. “There’s a lot of hard-working, proud hockey players in this room that will be ready to play.”

Saturday, one star continued to shine and another dimmed from view.

As Iginla powered the Flames to within one victory of advancing to the conference semifinals, goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere was on the bench at the 1-minute 3-second mark of the second period.

Giguere’s final totals were grisly -- three goals on eight shots.

His teammates weren’t about to lay blame on a goaltender who has won big games in the past but has been average at best in this postseason while fighting an injury in his legs.

“We just came out and they outworked us,” said forward Rob Niedermayer, who made the game close by scoring with 33 seconds remaining. “That’s the bottom line. It’s something where we have to learn to come out like Game 4 every night and play that way the whole game.

“You can’t have any lapses and fall behind a team like that. It’s tough to come back.”

Meanwhile, the Flames followed Iginla’s lead.

Iginla scored his fourth and fifth goals of the series in a 4:35 span overlapping the first and second periods to bust open the game. The right wing has four goals in the last two games and 18 over 31 games he has played in the postseason.

“Iggy’s a great player,” Niedermayer said. “I think you’ve just got to try and get in his way as much as possible and play smart against him. We’re giving him too much room out there, and he’s taking advantage of it.”

After Iginla made it 3-0, Coach Randy Carlyle immediately summoned Ilya Bryzgalov. Bryzgalov, who started and lost Game 1, held the Flames scoreless from then on but the Ducks didn’t mount any kind of sustained offense.

Their persistence finally materialized in Andy McDonald’s goal midway through the third period. But by then, their fate was largely sealed.

“We played a little bit better,” forward Teemu Selanne said. “But you can’t win the game playing the [first] 40 minutes how we played. Disappointing night.”

Tony Amonte put the Ducks on the defensive when he punched in a short-handed goal at 5:49 of the first period as he finished off a play created by Matthew Lombardi, who rushed past Ryan Getzlaf and Francois Beauchemin before dropping a pass back to the trailing forward.

“I thought he had Getzlaf beat so I tried to cover,” Beauchemin said. “He made a great backhand pass to Amonte. I don’t think [Giguere] could have done anything on that.”

Iginla then took over as the Flames held up a statistic that’s held true through the series -- the team that scores first wins.

“It is important just for momentum,” Iginla said. “It gets everyone feeling good and wanting to push for that second score.”