LECLERC IN LECLUTCH DRAMATIC GOAL LEAVES DUCKS ONE WIN FROM ADVANCING DUCKS 1, DALLAS 0.

Byline: Brice Nixon Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Mike Leclerc is grateful he's even playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs after struggling to recover from knee surgery for much of the season.

The Mighty Ducks are certainly grateful to have him.

Leclerc scored a power-play goal with 1:47 left in the game as the Ducks took a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Dallas Stars with a 1-0 victory in Game 4 in front of 17,174 at the Pond on Wednesday.

``I missed a chance about two, three shifts before that, a pretty good opportunity, and I was kind of kicking myself on the bench,'' Leclerc said. ``It was a unbelievable feeling (to score).''

It was Leclerc's second game-winner of the playoffs.

``I hope it gets to be a habit,'' he said.

Sandis Ozolinsh took a pass from Ruslan Salei and sent it cross-ice to Leclerc, who put a one-timer past Stars goalie Marty Turco. Considering how much the Ducks have struggled on the power play recently, Ozolinsh wasn't confident even with Leclerc wide open across the crease.

``I saw him clearly. So I was pretty sure,'' Ozolinsh said, then reconsidered. ``The way things have been going on the power play lately, I wasn't so sure.''

Ducks coach Mike Babcock was.

``I knew we'd win the game as soon as we got through the second period and killed all those penalties,'' he said.

The Stars had three power plays in the second period. The Ducks took control of the game in the third period. Still, it took some spectacular saves from Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere to keep the game scoreless. Giguere had 28 saves for his first career playoff shutout.

``Both goalies played real well and allowed both teams to stay in it,'' Stars center Mike Modano said. ``We flinched first.''

Giguere made his biggest save on what Modano must have thought was a sure goal early in the third. Modano had the right side of the net open before Giguere came out of nowhere to make a last-second kick save and stopped Claude Lemieux's rebound attempt.

``It looked spectacular because I made a mistake,'' Giguere said. ``(Brenden) Morrow got that pass across and I just happened to get my foot on the shot.''

Turco matched him to keep the game scoreless. He stopped Samuel Pahlsson's redirection attempt and the rebound, as well as Leclerc from the slot. The Ducks controlled play in the third period but couldn't get anything past Turco.

``We played desperate all night long, and we were pretty close a couple times,'' Turco said. ``It's just disappointing we couldn't capitalize on our chances.''

Neither could the Ducks thanks to Turco. The Ducks had three quality scoring chances in the first period. Paul Kariya had two of them. Turco poked away a pass from Petr Sykora just before Kariya could get to it at the crease. He had a breakaway with 1:40 left, but Turco made the save on Kariya's shot from the left faceoff circle. After a Stars turnover, Rob Niedermayer had a chance from the right circle but Turco made a glove save.

Niedermayer created another chance early in the second period. He chased down his own dump-in and collided with Turco, who lost his stick. With Turco still out of the crease, Niedermayer stood in front of an empty net. Salei sent a shot from the blue line, but Niedermayer's deflection went wide. Leclerc hit the crossbar a minute later, and Niedermayer could only get off an off-balance shot on a shorthanded breakaway five minutes into the period.

The Stars didn't have as many quality chances, and Giguere made the save on their best one, Darryl Sydor's charging one-timer from the middle of the left faceoff circle. He also held up to late pressure from the Stars, stopping close-range shots from Lemieux and Scott Young in the final minutes of the second period.

The Ducks had more jump in their step than on Monday, their only loss of the playoffs. They were better on second and third efforts fighting for the puck. And it paid off when Leclerc's goal gave them a chance to clinch the series in Game 5 on Saturday in Dallas.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Mighty Ducks' Mike Leclerc (12) scores the game-winning power-play goal past Dallas' Marty Turco. Anaheim leads the series 3-1.

Ric Francis/Associated Press

(2) A group of Dallas Stars tries in vain to score against the Ducks' Jean-Sebastien Giguere, right.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

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