Mighty Ducks

Tuesday, 30 May 2006

Oilers send Ducks packing

Oilers 2 Ducks 1 | Edmonton heads to first Stanley Cup final since 1990

Sixteen years between last time and this time.

But the Oilers — a team that very much lives in the past, its own glorious past — are back where they believe they rightfully belong: The Stanley Cup final.

It's the first time since 1990, when they took out Boston in five games.

Spare a thought for the poor Anaheim Mighty Ducks, though. They really did deserve a fate kinder than this, ushered out the door of the post-season 2-1 in their home rink, a four-games-to-one denouement in the Western Conference final.

Gutsy thing Anaheim did before fading to black, though, yanking Jean-Sebastien Giguere with more than two minutes left in regulation time and a brace of Oilers in the penalty box, all of which resulted in six skaters on three for a good chunk.

Didn't change a thing, though: Not the score, not the series outcome.

For Edmonton, however implausibly, it amounted to a Clarence Campbell Trophy — like anybody wants to touch that thing —and a ticket to the ball, though they hardly be belles.

Sitting in his corner of the visitor dressing room, Mike Peca looked downright cadaverous, face sunken in more on one side than the other, left eye darkly swollen. "All along, we've tried to prove to people that we're a team that was good enough for the Stanley Cup final. There were times we showed it and times we were laughed at for even saying it.''

Ryan Smyth — Captain Canada through all those other years when, long before this point on the calendar, he'd be out of the playoffs and toiling for the national squad at the worlds instead — was sweetly savouring success.

"Stanley Cup final has a great ring to it. We'll cherish this for a bit and then get ready for whoever we're going to meet.''

A little bewildering, Dwayne Roloson acknowledged, since he only arrived in Edmonton at the trade deadline, with absolutely no one expecting this kind of sustained excellence from the journeyman goalie.

"Edmonton was the last place I thought I'd end up. But I was elated. I knew we had a chance to do something special as long as I played half-decent and gave them a chance to win.''

That he did, and then some. Goaltending was, as coach Craig MacTavish said last night, the one area where Edmonton has dominated through the post-season. Of Roloson, he said admiringly: "Bent when he could bend and didn't when he couldn't.''

Lousy bottom line for Teemu Selanne and the Ducks, however.

It was the fourth time this spring that Anaheim had played a potential elimination game, twice staving off Calgary in the first round and then shoving back Edmonton on Thursday, at a celebration-poised Rexall Place.

Funny thing for a 2-1 game, though — neither goalie was a critical factor.

Although Giguere, once-and-again No. 1 Anaheim netminder, kept Edmonton off the scoreboard through the opening period, he hardly looked assured between the pipes. More juggly than jiggy, actually, providing all manner of delectable rebounds.

Weird bounces further afforded ripe opportunities for the visitors while the home side was getting no such luck for their efforts, for all the miles they skated, and for the dumb penalties that Edmonton insisted on taking through the opening 20 minutes, including the first of two too-many-men-on-the-ice.

Yet Anaheim could beat an altogether unscary, on this evening, Roloson just the once, Francois Beauchemin leaning into a corker from just inside the blueline.

Ethan Moreau knotted the score 1-1 early in the second, on a wraparound. Less than five minutes later, Raffi Torres somehow managed to get his stick on the puck for a waist-high deflection on a shot from Marc-Andre Bergeron. It proved to be the winner.

posted by: MightyDuck at 16:09 | link | comments |

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posted by: MightyDuck at 16:09 | link | comments |