Checks and balance

An unlikely star already in these playoffs, the Ducks’ Travis Moen showed he isn’t finished, providing another stirring moment Monday night with the Stanley Cup now on the line against the Ottawa Senators.

Moen’s dramatic goal with 2 minutes 51 seconds left capped a thrilling third-period rally and gave the Ducks a 3-2 win in Game 1 to strike the first blow in the best-of-seven series in front of a raucous, standing-room-only crowd of 17,274 at the Honda Center.

Nothing has been decided after one game, but the Ducks can point to two good omens heading into Game 2 Wednesday. The team that has won Game 1 has won the Stanley Cup 77.6% of the time, and the team with home-ice advantage has won the Cup the last eight seasons.

“I think that’s what we had to do tonight,” Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer said. “That’s what we look at. There was one game to win tonight and that was this one.”

All the focus before the series seemed to be on how well the Ducks would handle the Senators’ explosive trio of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley, whom no one else has been able to stop.

Maybe the focus needs to be on the Ducks’ unassuming checking line of Moen, Samuel Pahlsson and Rob Niedermayer. They’ve combined to score 11 goals in this postseason.

Moen has five of those goals, including an overtime game-winner in the Western Conference semifinals against Vancouver. But the biggest one to date for the 25-year-old left wing came when he banged a pass from Rob Niedermayer past Ottawa goalie Ray Emery on his glove side.

“It’s huge,” Moen said. “I think every kid dreams of scoring a goal to win a game in the Stanley Cup final. It’s something special and something I’ll never forget.”

Niedermayer made the play happen when he picked up his brother’s dump pass behind the Senators’ net and made a move on Spezza to keep possession before backhanding the puck out to Moen sitting in the slot.

Afterward, Niedermayer deflected the credit to his linemate.

“Moen just made a great shot,” he said. “The puck was wobbling a bit, but he kind of picked a corner. He deserves it. He’s a pretty hardworking guy.”

Said Moen: “I got lucky and kind of timed it right and got it on net. It went in.”

It marked the Ducks’ 10th victory decided by one goal in these playoffs. Naturally, it didn’t come without some hairy moments in the final seconds.

With the Senators already having pulled Emery for an extra attacker, Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger took a hooking penalty with 43.2 seconds left and Ottawa suddenly had a six-on-four advantage.

As they have throughout the postseason, the Ducks pulled themselves out of the fire. Jean-Sebastien Giguere made an impressive save on Alfredsson sitting on his doorstep in the final seconds, the last of 18 he made on the night.

The Ducks again persevered despite another slew of penalties that gave Ottawa seven power plays. Goals by Mike Fisher in the first period and Wade Redden in the second, both with the extra attacker, gave the Senators 1-0 and 2-1 leads.

But Ottawa also failed to capitalize on a five-on-three advantage for 1:35 in the second period with a chance for a 3-1 lead.

“We took some penalties we didn’t want to take,” Ducks defenseman Sean O’Donnell said. “We got ourselves into trouble with the five-on-three. But we found a way to get it out and we did come back.”

Playing off the energy the fourth line of Brad May, Todd Marchant and Shawn Thornton provided early, the other Ducks forwards picked up the pace in the fateful third.

Ryan Getzlaf continued his star turn, putting in his sixth goal of the playoffs with a nifty backhander through Emery’s legs at the 5:44 mark to tie it at 2-2. Getzlaf has three goals in his last four games.

“We know how dominant he can be,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “And he was at times tonight.”

Rookie winger Drew Miller also made an impact. In the first period his hard check on Redden along the boards forced a turnover in the Ottawa zone and Teemu Selanne dropped a pass to Andy McDonald, who beat Emery with a wrist shot for the Ducks’ first goal.

The Ducks have at least guaranteed a better start than they had in their finals appearance in 2003 when they lost the first two games to New Jersey before eventually forcing a Game 7.

“It’s important to us,” Rob Niedermayer said of the win. “But that’s one game. And we’ve got to forget about this and come out on Wednesday and play even harder. We know Ottawa is going to keep playing well.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com