Beauchemin’s Grit Inspires

CALGARY, Canada —  In Game 5, it was Teemu Selanne against Robyn Regehr. In Game 6, the one-on-one battles centered on Mighty Duck defenseman Francois Beauchemin and Flame captain Jarome Iginla.

Beauchemin and Iginla squared off in a fight just over a minute into the game, a battle that the Duck rookie won decisively. As the Ducks were closing out a 2-1 victory to tie the series, Iginla tried to gain revenge by taking a run at a helmet-less Beauchemin in the final seconds.

The two teams never met in a playoff series until this year, but there is a clear dislike for one another.

“We’ve played now six games in this series,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We’ve played two in one week [to end the regular season]. That’s eight games we’ve played against each other.... That’s what competitive hockey brings.”

Selanne said Beauchemin gave his teammates a lift.

“He showed a lot of courage,” Selanne said. “It was great for everybody to see. He showed he was going to do whatever it takes to win the series.”

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Carlyle could not go without being asked who his starting goaltender would be, but the first-year coach took a lighter tone after being testy with reporters the last two days.

“If you come to warmup, you’ll [know],” he said.

The decision figures to be clear with Ilya Bryzgalov making 21 saves Monday after Jean-Sebastien Giguere struggled in Game 5 and was pulled.

“We made a switch [Monday] and it worked,” Carlyle said. “We’ll contemplate what we’re going to do and move forward from that.”

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Duck captain Scott Niedermayer on the series to date: “There hasn’t been too many surprises. I don’t make predictions in my head or anything like that. We’ve gotten what we’ve expected from Calgary.”