DUCKS DON'T QUACK UP : KARIYA, SELANNE TEAM FOR OT WIN TO KEEP SERIES ALIVE MIGHTY DUCKS 3, PHOENIX 2.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

As they have been all year, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne were what the Mighty Ducks needed for an important victory.

Kariya and Selanne, who combined for 208 points as the NHL's second- and third-highest scorers this season, played big roles in the Ducks' 3-2 overtime win over Phoenix on Sunday that sent the Western Conference first-round series to a seventh game.

Using a designed breakaway play, Selanne flipped a pass over the neutral zone to Kariya, who beat Nikolai Khabibulin with a wrist shot into the opposite corner of the net.

Phoenix defenseman Gerald Diduck followed Kariya but couldn't catch up because Selanne's pass was perfect.

``It wound up on my stick, and I released it as quickly as possible,'' Kariya said.

``We practice that all the time,'' Selanne said. ``I've reached him many times where he gets the puck, but not where he doesn't have to do anything. It was lucky - the timing was perfect. There's always some luck involved.''

The winning shot 7:29 into the first extra period was Kariya's second of the game. Kariya and Brian Bellows had goals in the second period to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead, but the Coyotes - like the Ducks also in their first playoff series - tied it on scores in the third by Darrin Shannon and Keith Tkachuk.

``We should have had it in regulation, but we fought back, regained our composure, and broke the game open,'' Kariya said.

Tkachuk's goal, his playoff-best sixth, made it 2-2 with just 2:16 left in regulation.

``We battled back and had an opportunity to win it,'' Tkachuk said. ``It's all even going to the last game and they have home ice, but we've played well on the road all year.''

Phoenix broke the Ducks' 16-game home-unbeaten streak last week and must win again in Anaheim on Tuesday, possibly without high-scoring center Jeremy Roenick, who injured his left knee in a collision with the Ducks' Ted Drury midway through the second period.

Coach Don Hay called it a cheap shot, but Roenick, who misfired on a clearing pass and was chasing the puck, said it was bad luck.

``I just got my leg caught in the wrong place trying to get the puck back,'' Roenick said.

The game was upbeat for the Ducks, who edged out the Coyotes for fourth place in the West with a season-ending 5-0-2 run and then won the first two playoff games in the franchise's four-year history.

Drury said coach Ron Wilson fired up the team with his pregame talk.

``He kind of made an analogy between the `Wizard of Oz' and us playing in this game, and I guess the bottom line was that, like all the characters there, they realize in the end that the things they're looking for were inside themselves,'' Drury said. ``That's the gist of it.

``The things we were looking for were inside us; we just had to find them.''

The series featured another controversial non-goal after each team had three disallowed in the first four games. This time, a shot by Selanne in the second period trickled through Khabibulin's legs and appeared to cross the goal line before Coyotes defenseman Gerald Diduck swept it away. The play was reviewed between periods, and officials said it never got in.

Kariya got his second power-play goal and fourth overall 6:12 into the second period when he knocked his own rebound past Khabibulin.

With 59 seconds to play in the period, Bellows became the first Anaheim forward other than Kariya and Selanne to score a goal in the series.

His was a rebound as well, coming after Mironov tried a wraparound and was stopped by Khabibulin. Khabibulin, however, fell to his knees with the effort and Bellows flipped it over the goalie's left shoulder.

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Photo

Photo: (color) Paul Kariya leads the victory parade after his overtime goal forces a Game 7.

Associated Press