Ducks Pull Through Against Overwhelming Odds

ST. PAUL, Minn. —  Oleg Tverdovsky, still dripping from a postgame shower and wearing only a towel, glanced at a score sheet and said in his best incredulous voice: “Zero for 10. You kidding me?”

No, the Mighty Ducks actually killed off all 10 short-handed situations Friday against the expansion Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

But that was merely one of many head-scratching events in the Ducks’ 1-0 overtime victory over the Wild. Fact is, this one had more bizarre twists and turns than a Picasso. It will never be placed in a museum near you, however.

The Ducks and Wild put an announced sellout of 18,064 to sleep with what was quite possibly the worst game in recent NHL history.

Some fussy officiating from referees Bernard DeGrace and Tim Peel resulted in 10 minor penalties against the Ducks--including seven in the second period--and five against the Wild.

The last of the 15 penalties proved to be the difference in the game. DeGrace whistled Minnesota’s Ladislav Benysek for slashing the Ducks’ Ladislav Kohn with 1:19 left in regulation play, setting up Tverdovsky’s third overtime game-winner in two seasons.

The Ducks managed nothing of note on the ensuing power play until Teemu Selanne slipped a pass from behind the Minnesota net to a fast-closing Tverdovsky in the left faceoff circle.

Tverdovsky’s blast hit the back of the net 21 seconds into the five-minute extra period and the Ducks escaped with their strangest victory in a season filled with strange games.

“It was just a ridiculous game,” captain Paul Kariya said after the Ducks’ best penalty-killing effort this season, only one game after they gave up four power-play goals in a 5-2 loss Wednesday to the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets.

“I don’t know what the refs were doing tonight,” he continued. “It’s hard to get anything going when you’re constantly going to the box like that. I don’t mind if they’re calling it that tight for both teams, but it was just against us. I don’t know if they had it in for us or what, but I’ve never seen a game like that.”

Given the Ducks’ fragile state of mind, it could have been just the thing to send them over the edge. Perhaps the most absurd sight of the night was watching Selanne head to the sin bin after Minnesota defenseman Brad Bombardir hooked him to the ice with 3:25 left in the second period.

To be sure, Selanne embellished his fall, hoping Bombardir would be penalized. Selanne went off for unsportsmanlike conduct instead.

Minnesota’s Stacy Roest clanged a shot from the left wing off the goal post while Selanne was in the box. An inch to the right and the Wild would have had the lead.

As it was, Guy Hebert stopped 27 shots for his second shutout this week. He blanked the Kings, 4-0, on Sunday.

The Ducks needed, and received, strong penalty killing twice more in the third period. Finally, they began to generate sustained pressure in the attacking zone and Tverdovsky scored the only goal the Ducks needed to win.

Despite playing with a bruised and swollen left knee, Tverdovsky led the Ducks with 25 minutes 39 seconds of ice time. At the morning skate, there seemed to be some question as to whether he would play and extend his streak of consecutive games to 239, the league’s second-longest active streak behind Chicago’s Tony Amonte (274 games).

“He’s sore,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “I had no doubt [Thursday] that Oleg would play. A normal guy wouldn’t play, but you would have to strap him down before he wouldn’t play. It didn’t look like it bothered him at all tonight.”

Tverdovsky, who banged his knee on the goal post Wednesday, begged to differ.

“I couldn’t push off 100% off my left leg,” he said. “I knew if I could make it through the first period it would warm up and I would feel better.”

Tverdovsky said he had more reasons to play Friday than his personal streak. Referring to the Ducks’ 4-11-3-1 record in the last 19 games, he said, “You know, we’ve gotten ourselves in a hole and we’ve all got to come together to get out of it.”

To that end, Kariya rounded up his teammates Thursday for a field trip to the Mall of America in nearby Bloomington, Minn., for a movie titled “Men of Honor” and a team dinner. There was no talk of slumps or streaks or pucks or sticks.