Blue-Collar Approach Pays Off for Ducks

The puck came to Sean O’Donnell as if magnetized, a slow-motion moment in a frantic game.

He wound up from the left circle.

He shot.

Game over. Mighty Ducks win. Series tied.

The Ducks on Thursday rediscovered a bit of the magic that fueled their run to the Stanley Cup finals three years ago, riding O’Donnell’s goal at 1:36 of overtime to a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames and tying their best-of-seven series at two games each. Their eighth playoff overtime victory in their last nine might have been their least likely triumph, born of desperation and assembled from the shards of broken dreams.

O’Donnell, acquired by the Ducks at the trade deadline to add the grit and muscle that General Manager Brian Burke has always prized, contributed in a way even he did not expect. After taking a pass from Chris Kunitz, with Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff trying to peer through a tangle of bodies, O’Donnell simply buried his head and hoped for the best.

He got it.

“We talked about the fact that these games aren’t won by tick-tack-toe plays,” said O’Donnell, who had scored three goals in his previous 47 playoff games and 23 in 771 regular-season games.

“It’s something ugly, traffic in front of the net or a good bounce. We got traffic in front of the net and I got a good bounce.

“I don’t get many goals, so I really wasn’t trying. I put my head down and shot as hard as I could. And then I was going to get back to make sure nobody got behind me. I didn’t have to.”

His goal provided an upbeat ending to a game that threatened to get away from the Ducks. If it had, the series might have eluded their control, too.

Mauled by the Flames in the first three games of the series, the Ducks were aggressive and physical on Thursday. They called in the cavalry in the person of 6-foot-4, 243-pound winger Dustin Penner, and he gave them brawn and size and courage.

For the first two periods, that was enough. They matched the Flames hit for hit, shoulder to shoulder, elbow to jaw. Rookie Ryan Getzlaf and veteran Teemu Selanne each scored in the second period, and the Ducks seemed to have found their stride.

And then, within a span of 3 minutes 16 seconds early in the third period, Jarome Iginla did what franchise players are supposed to do, making the moment and the game his own by tying the score mostly on sheer will.

He scored 11 seconds into the period, taking a long pass from Daymond Langkow and beating Jean-Sebastien Giguere with a wrist shot from the hash marks. At 3:27, he was alone in a crowd to beat Giguere from point-blank range after taking a pass from Andrew Ference, deflating the Ducks and the sellout crowd at the Arrowhead Pond.

The Ducks’ best players were not their top players on Thursday. Selanne managed to score his first goal of these playoffs, but Giguere did not look like the Giguere of three years ago, the one who got in front of everything, saw everything, somehow found ways to stop the barrages directed toward him.

He was not that player on Thursday, but the Ducks won anyway.

That could mean the Ducks have developed the depth, both in skill and in character, to manufacture ways to win, to take the little they’re given and make a lot out of it.

They may have learned that from the Flames, who have little offensive depth but have learned how to make it go a long way by playing determined, relentless defense.

“It wasn’t as beautiful as the way we wanted it to be,” Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei said.

“We got the lead and we couldn’t hold it. But we got what we needed in overtime and a win like that is going to give you energy the next time out.”

The next time out will be Saturday in Calgary, where the teams split the first two games. The Flames will draw energy from the cheers of their fans, from the sea of red jerseys filling the Pengrowth Saddledome.

The Ducks, though, can draw inspiration from knowing that they beat the Flames at their own game on Thursday. O’Donnell scored the decisive goal, but each of his teammates did something to keep this game -- this series -- from getting away from them.

The Ducks’ victory on Thursday didn’t belong to Giguere. It belonged to every player who sweated, strained and got back up after he was knocked down.

O’Donnell could barely put into words how he felt after the Ducks had tilted the series back in their own direction.

“I don’t score goals. I really can’t say,” he said. “You’re gonna have to ask me tomorrow but I think I’m gonna feel pretty good.”

All of the Ducks have earned the right to feel that way.