DUCKS' THOMAS IN RIGHT SPOT MIGHTY DUCKS 5, CHICAGO 2.

Byline: Brice Nixon Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Steve Thomas arrived at the Pond on Tuesday hoping to put a roadblock in the Mighty Ducks' drive toward the playoffs. A day later, he gave them a huge boost.

Thomas learned of his trade Tuesday to the Ducks from the Chicago Blackhawks when the Blackhawks got to the arena for practice that day. On Wednesday, he scored twice as the Ducks defeated the Blackhawks 5-2 in front of 13,212. The Ducks have 80 points and remain tied for sixth in the Western Conference with the Minnesota Wild.

Thomas and Rob Niedermayer, acquired by the Ducks from the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, were brought in to add experience and toughness to the offense, and both showed immediate returns. Thomas got his 900th career point with his second goal of the night, which also gave the Ducks a 3-1 lead.

Niedermayer joined the line of Adam Oates and Petr Sykora - who scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season and 400th career point - Oates centered a pass to Sykora, who put a backhander past Thibault for his 50th point of the season. Sykora has 11 goals and 25 points in his last 25 games. Niedermayer provided the type of power forward presence up front the Ducks have lacked.

``Impressive debut for both of them,'' Ducks coach Mike Babcock said. ``Steve obviously can shoot the puck and is excited to be here. And then Niedermayer, he can push the pace, he can fly out there, and he's a big body. And you can see how much (Oates) and Sykora end up with the puck because he's getting there for them, and gets his big body on it and now suddenly they have the puck and (Oates) can make plays.''

Thomas' first goal erased an early deficit. His second gave the Ducks a comfortable lead almost halfway through the game. It was Thomas' first multigoal game since Nov. 1, 2001.

Just over four minutes into the game, Eric Daze got by Ducks defenseman Keith Carney up the right side and centered a pass to Steve Sullivan, who beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere with a one-timer from the slot. Daze also set up Sullivan's 21st goal of the season late in the third period. After Sullivan's first goal, the Ducks continued to have problems around their own net until Thomas got them even.

Thomas redirected a pass from Stanislav Chistov past Chicago goalie Jocelyn Thibault to make it 1-1 with less than eight minutes remaining.

``I played with some controlled emotion tonight,'' Thomas said, ``rather than running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to do everyone else's job. For me, I don't know if I could've written a better script for my first game for this organization.''

Paul Kariya, stuck at 299 career goals the past seven games, was robbed by Thibault late in the period. Kariya picked up the puck in the neutral zone and skated straight toward Thibault with Chicago defenseman Jon Klemm on his back. Kariya made a quick move near the crease and had Thibault beat, but the goalie raised his glove hand behind him and deflected Kariya's shot over the goal.

Thibault also stopped Kariya on a one-timer from just outside the crease less than three minutes earlier.

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