Scott Niedermayer Keeps His Focus on Big Picture

Scott Niedermayer leaned over the boards while sitting on the Mighty Ducks’ bench Wednesday night. Jeff Friesen had scored an empty-net goal seconds before to cap a 3-0 victory over Calgary that pushed the Ducks into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

On the bench, players were celebrating. Not Niedermayer, who had a look of an adult trying to remember how to do algebra.

“I was happy,” Niedermayer said Thursday, smiling. “That’s just my makeup. I don’t get too excited either way. It was definitely a great accomplishment and I was proud of the way my teammates played to win that series. At the same time, I don’t know what it accomplished.”

Translation: There are still three playoff series between the Ducks and the Stanley Cup.

That kind of tractor-beam focus is why the Ducks wooed Niedermayer last summer, signing him to a four-year, $27-million contract. It is also a big reason that he is once again a candidate to win the Norris Trophy, given to the NHL’s top defenseman. Niedermayer, Dallas’ Sergei Zubov and Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom are the three finalists, the NHL said Thursday.

The Ducks face Colorado tonight at the Arrowhead Pond in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Niedermayer had more than a little to do with the Ducks advancing. He had two goals, including the Game 6 winner, and three assists against Calgary.

“I feel very safer when he is on the ice,” Duck goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov said.

Niedermayer, who won the Norris Trophy in 2004, had a career high with 50 assists and 63 points during the regular season.

More important, he may have brought the Ducks steel-eyed vision beyond the first round.

“That’s just his way,” said Duck forward Rob Niedermayer, Scott’s brother. “He doesn’t get rattled and he doesn’t get too excited.”

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Friesen has been in the playoffs five times now where a series reached a seventh game, and he remains undefeated.

“I don’t know if there is any way to explain that,” he said. “But it seems I always get on a team that is built for Game 7 success.”

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The Ducks lost three of four games to the Avalanche during the regular season, all by one goal. The Ducks’ only victory came in overtime, 5-4, on March 22.... The Ducks signed left wing Drew Miller, a free agent from Michigan State, to a two-year entry-level contract.