DUCKS: BLOOD, SWEAT, CHEERS HARD-NOSED PLAY EQUALS STANLEY CUP FINALS BERTH.Byline: ELLIOTT TEAFORD Staff Writer ANAHEIM -- Standing amid a crush of reporters inside the Ducks' dressing room late Tuesday night, forward Todd Marchant Todd Marchant (born August 12, 1973 in Buffalo, New York, U.S.) is a National Hockey League center who is currently playing for the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL. He has played nine seasons with the Edmonton Oilers and one season with the Columbus Blue Jackets, as well as AHL games with symbolized the team's run to the Stanley Cup Stanley Cup: see hockey, ice. Stanley Cup Trophy awarded annually to the winning team of the National Hockey League championship. Named for its donor, the Canadian governor-general Frederick Arthur Stanley, Lord Stanley of Preston Finals. His nose was bloodied and bent at an unnatural angle, the result of an accidental high stick from Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. defenseman Chris Chelios Chris Chelios (born Christos Kostas Tselios January 25 1962, in Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an American defenceman for the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL. Chelios also played for the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks. in the frantic third period. His bushy bush·y adj. bush·i·er, bush·i·est 1. Overgrown with bushes. 2. Thick and shaggy: a bushy head of hair. playoff beard A playoff-beard is the superstitious practice of a National Hockey League player not shaving his beard during the Stanley Cup playoffs. The player stops shaving when his team enters the playoffs and does not shave until his team is eliminated or wins the Stanley Cup. was soaked with sweat. His hair was matted. When someone asked how long he might take to celebrate the Ducks' 4-3 victory in Game6 and their 4-2 series win over the Red Wings red wings see combretum platypetalum. , Marchant merely smiled. He had imposed a 10-minute rule of his own. "I'm going to get an X-ray to see if my nose is broken," he said. "Oh, it is," a reporter said with a smile that looked more like a wince. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time," Marchant said. Battered but unbeaten, the Ducks are moving on to the Stanley Cup Finals to face the Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (French: Les Sénateurs d'Ottawa) are a professional men's hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). . Game 1 is Monday night at the Honda Center Current arenas in the National Hockey League Western Conference Eastern Conference American Airlines Center | General Motors Place | HP Pavilion | Honda Center | Jobing. . Loved by some, loathed by others, they seem to relish their status as the Big Bad Ducks. They certainly have been willing to shed blood, sweat and tears in order to get this far. The final round is where they wanted to be, where they expected to be. The seeds of their journey were sown in the bleak hours after their elimination from the Western Conference finals last May by the Edmonton Oilers, a team the Ducks expected to defeat on their way to the Cup finals. Along the way, the Ducks set franchise records for victories with 48 and points with 110. They won the club's first Pacific Division title. They knocked off Minnesota, Vancouver and Detroit in the playoffs. If they earned few friends or admirers on the other side of the ice, well, they didn't seem to care. Brad May was suspended for three games for leveling Minnesota's Kim Johnsson with a punch in the opening round. Chris Pronger received a one-game suspension for smashing Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom face-first into the glass in the third round. The Ducks trailed the Red Wings 2-1 in the series, but stormed back to win three consecutive games. Their goaltending goal·tend·ing n. 1. Sports The act of protecting a goal, as in hockey and other such sports. 2. Basketball was superb, their special- teams play improved and their resolve never wavered in the face of criticism that they weren't all that good. In fact, they do take too many penalties and they are undisciplined at times. But so far, they have found ways to overcome their shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw. Shortcomings may also be:
"We have fun playing together," Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. "We have fun competing together. ... As far as respect, we're playing for each other. We're playing to try to do well as a team and that's really our concern. All those other things, we really don't think about." The Ducks will turn their attention to Ottawa starting with Friday's practice. Coach Randy Carlyle gave them two days off to rest and recover, following a similar routine after series victories against Minnesota and Vancouver. The Senators present a challenge much like the Wild and Canucks in that they have one outstanding line supported by a cast of gritty role players. Dany Heatley (six goals, 15assists), Jason Spezza (sevengoals, 13 assists) and Daniel Alfredsson (10 goals, seven assists) are the top scoring line in the playoffs. They have accounted for 23 of the Senators' 48 playoff goals. "Well, obviously, their top line is playing great hockey," Niedermayer said, "but you don't get to the Finals without playing with 20 or 20-plus guys and everybody is doing their job. Obviously, they're committed to that. They're playing very well." The series also features the first Finals appearance for Ducks right wing Teemu Selanne, who is in his 15th NHL NHL Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, see there season. "This is very special for me," he said, "but it took all 22 guys, all knowing their roles, to get here. It's one big family. We're all like brothers." elliott.teaford@dailybreeze.com (310) 540-4201 CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Todd Marchant shows one of his battle scars after the Ducks' victory Tuesday. Jeff Golden/Getty Images Box: DUCKS vs. OTTAWA |
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