Ducks Avert Late Collapse

Keith Carney was going to grab that guy.

Steve Rucchin was going to win that faceoff.

Niclas Havelid was going to win that battle in the corner.

Kurt Sauer was going to fire that puck as hard as he could up the ice.

The Mighty Ducks did the right things at the right moment to avert explaining another late-game collapse. A lesson that came cheap enough in a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday in front of an announced 12,493 at the Arrowhead Pond.

“We need to have a little bit more composure,” Rucchin said. “We’re definitely getting a lot of experience for that.”

There is value in a win like this ... especially when you get the win. The Ducks had ties in their three previous games, but let two-goal third-period leads get away in two of them. So holding on Sunday was worth the pain, in hindsight.

“This was a little step,” Rucchin said. “This will help us to be better. Still, we can’t let a team back in a game like that.”

The Ducks spent the first seven minutes in hockey heaven and the next 53 a little farther south.

Paul Kariya, Marc Chouinard and Patric Kjellberg scored the three fastest goals to start a game in franchise history. All it got them was a one-goal lead at the end of the period.

“We got comfortable,” defenseman Fredrik Olausson said.

The uncomfortable moments continued down to the end.

With 12 seconds left, Chicago’s Eric Daze nearly broke in alone on goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. So defenseman Keith Carney hooked him, taking the penalty.

“I don’t know if he was going to get a shot off,” Carney said. “But, yeah, I’d do that every time.”

That left the Blackhawks, who had pulled their goalie, with a two-man advantage and the faceoff in the Duck end. Rucchin won the draw. Havelid dug the puck out of the corner. Sauer flung it up ice with some passion.

“I just wanted that thing out of our end, take the two points and go home,” Sauer said.

The need for that sort of scrappy play seemed unnecessary at the start. The Ducks broke from the gate quickly, with three goals on their first four shots, then stumbled home.

But a win is a win, of course, of course.

“I can see it as a big win,” Coach Mike Babcock said. “Don’t get me wrong, I would have liked us to keep playing the same way. I don’t know if you know this or not, but we’re not used to having a big lead.”

Babcock ended his postgame remarks abruptly.

“It wasn’t perfect hockey game by any means,” he said. “We won. See you guys.”

The Ducks scored three goals on their first four shots on goal, then went into hibernation. They had only two shots on goal the next 20 minutes.

The Ducks gave a 7-minute 24-second lesson on the NHL to Blackhawk goalie and Chicago native Craig Andersson, who was making his first NHL start. Andersson could only hope the relatives were late tuning in Sunday.

Stanislav Chistov sent a slick cross-ice pass that Kariya buried for a power-play goal and a 1-0 lead 1:54 into the game. Marc Chouinard pushed a rebound under Andersson for a 2-0 lead 24 seconds later. Olausson then fired a shot that went off Kjellberg and into the net for another power-play goal at 7:24.

The air went out of the Duck balloon at that point.

“There was no need for us to let up,” Giguere said. “We can’t give them a chance to come back in a game like that. Their goalie was making his first [start] in the NHL. He gave up three quick goals, we got to keep shooting.”

A rather weak shot by Alexei Zhamnov hit Giguere on the glove, popped in the air and fell into the goal at 18:12 of the first period.

Rookie Tony Arnason then flipped a loose puck into the goal to make it 3-2 with 42 seconds left in the period.

Chicago lost a goal when Jason Strudwick was called for goalie interference and one when Nathan Dempsey was called for kicking the puck into the net.

“This was one of those sports lessons that you don’t want to got through and hopefully won’t happen again,” Olausson said.