DUCKS IN PLAYOFFS AFTER WIN.Byline: ELLIOTT TEAFORD Staff Writer ANAHEIM -- 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 playoffs don't begin until next month, but apparently nobody informed the Ducks and Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Prior to 1993, the team was known as the Minnesota North Stars. . They seemed to believe the postseason began Friday 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. , going at each other with the intensity of a May or June game. The Ducks hit the Stars with everything they had over the course of 62 minutes, 28 seconds. The Stars countered with a few molar-rattling checks of their own. In the end, Scott Niedermayer Robert Scott Niedermayer (born August 31, 1973, in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian ice hockey defenceman, who is currently suspended by the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. made the Ducks winners with a quick snap shot a quick offhand shot, without deliberately taking aim. See also: Snap from the high slot for a 3-2 overtime victory that punched their ticket for the playoffs. "I was just moving around and trying to make it hard for the other guys," said Niedermayer, who had an assist on the second of Chris Kunitz's two goals. Niedermayer set career highs with 51 assists and 64 points, one more in each category than he had last season. He also moved ahead of Pittsburgh's Sergei Gonchar (62 points) for the scoring lead among defensemen. The victory enabled the Ducks to set franchise records with 44 victories and 100 points. It also moved the Ducks four points ahead of the second-place San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). and six ahead of Dallas in the Pacific Division. "It was a man's game out there on the ice," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger helped to make it so. The Ducks were buoyed by the return of Pronger, who had sat out seven games after breaking a bone in his left big toe big toe n. The largest and innermost toe of the human foot. during a postgame workout March 4. The Ducks were 4-2-1 without Pronger, a former Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's top defenseman. Pronger crunched Dallas' Brenden Morrow against the boards on the opening shift, announcing his return to the sellout crowd of 17,421. "There was a lot of back and forth out there," Pronger said. "It was a good game to get back into the swing of things, that's for sure." Kunitz gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 14:19 into the game. Dallas countered with Pronger in the penalty box for high sticking, with Sergei Zubov scoring on a laser from the high slot at 16:00. The teams traded goals early in the third period, with Mike Modano giving the Stars a 2-1 lead at 1:40 on a pretty wraparound Wraparound A financing device that permits an existing loan to be refinanced and new money to be advanced at an interest rate between the rate charged on the old loan and the current market interest rate. and Kunitz supplying the equalizer with a power-play goal at 4:56. elliott.teaford@dailybreeze.com (310) 540-4201 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Dallas' Niklas Hagman leaps over the stick of the Ducks' Andy McDonald in Friday's game. Mark Avery/Associated Press |
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