folgersnyourcup
05-06-2003, 01:06 PM
Here's a good article I found on ocregister.com
Mighty Ducks bring back memories of Angels
With right ingredients, Ducks cooking up team of destiny.
By RANDY YOUNGMAN
The Orange County Register
ANAHEIM – With World Series MVP Troy Glaus, Game 6 hero Scott Spiezio and four Angels teammates watching from a private suite at The Pond, the planets and the stars seemed properly aligned for another clincher by the other Disney-owned pro sports franchise in Anaheim on Monday night.
This, after all, was Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.
"Game 6 Karma" was the caption on the video scoreboard as the cameras zoomed in on Spiezio midway through the wildest third period of the series, eliciting a roar of approval from the sellout crowd after a clip of Spiezio's pivotal Game 6 homer against the Giants was shown.
And so it almost seemed preordained that the 2002-03 Mighty Ducks of Destiny continued their improbable postseason ride into history Monday night.
Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh slapped a rebound past goalie Marty Turco with 1:06 left in the third period, lifting the Ducks to an exhilarating 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars that makes Anaheim the first team in NHL history to knock off the top two seeds in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In the opening round, the seventh-seeded Ducks grabbed the attention of the hockey world by sweeping the second-seeded Detroit Red Wings, defending Stanley Cup champions, but they still had to prove it wasn't a fluke by conquering the top-seeded Stars to advance to the conference finals for the first time in the 10-year history of the franchise.
The heroes have been numerous, as was the case Monday night when defensemen Ruslan Salei and Ozolinsh scored the third-period goals that enabled the Ducks to avoid a return trip to Dallas for a Game 7 no one wanted to play.
I guess video goal judge Joe Miazgowicz or referee supervisor Jim Christison or whoever it was in the league office in Toronto who ultimately disallowed the tying goal by Stars center Stu Barnes with 7:58 left also qualifies as a hero to the Anaheim faithful.
Then again, the same jury of officials also allowed another tying goal to stand with 5:11 left, even though replays appeared to show that Stars winger Rob DiMaio lifted the toe of his skate to redirect a Sergei Zubov shot into the net.
In the end, all of the video reviews were moot because the Ducks are now headed to Vancouver or Minnesota for the conference finals.
Besides their nightly designated heroes, there also have been three constants in the Ducks' giant-slaying routine: The Motivator, the Dominator and the Common Denominator.
The Motivator has been Mike Babcock, the rookie NHL coach who has taught his team to believe anything is possible, preaching over and over again that this time of year "is more about will than skill."
It's about both, of course, and now Babcock becomes the first rookie coach to advance to the conference finals since Pittsburgh's Ivan Hlinka in 2000.
"The plan was to find a way to win and get the job done," a jubilant Babcock said after Game 6. "This is beyond our wildest dreams."
Babcock said he was told by team officials that that "both (reviewed) goals should have been waved off," but it doesn't matter now.
The Dominator has been goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the No. 1 star in almost every game the Ducks have won, including four in overtime and a few in which the Ducks were outshot and outplayed and probably deserved to lose.
In Monday's clincher, Giguere bounced back from a subpar performance in Game 5 by once again making the key saves in a game the Ducks were outshot.
The Common Denominator has been General Manager Bryan Murray, the man most responsible for the most successful season in Ducks history.
After being asked to move from the bench to the front office after last season, Murray knew exactly what needed to be done to improve the team, so he proceeded to systematically overhaul the roster, acquiring the veteran talent needed to surround franchise player Paul Kariya and complement the rising young stars on the team.
Murray brought in Ozolinsh, Petr Sykora, Adam Oates, Steve Thomas and Rob Niedermayer, all of whom have played integral roles in the team's NHL-best regular-season turnaround from 69 to 95 points, as well as in the team's postseason run toward Lord Stanley's Cup, a photo of which is prominently displayed in the home dressing room.
And why is Murray the Common Denominator? Simple. The Ducks became the first team to knock off the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the same season since the 1995-96 Florida Panthers, another huge underdog that advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to Colorado.
The general manager of that Florida team, which defeated No. 1 seed Philadelphia in the conference semifinals and No. 2 seed Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals, was some guy named Bryan Murray.
Same guy.
Destiny, indeed.
"I remember we beat two great teams, but I wasn't sure they were No. 1 and No. 2 until somebody reminded me recently," Murray said Monday. "Time goes by so fast."
Any similarities between those Panthers and these Ducks?
"Quite a few," Murray said. "The goaltending was key for us, with (John) Vanbiesbrouck, just like it is now with Giguere. That also was a checking team that didn't score a lot of goals. And that was a real team, not a lot of stars, like this one."
Yes, this Ducks team is a mosaic of a selfless players. There are no Ducks players among the top 25 scorers in the postseason, and nobody has had more than six points in the 10 playoff games.
On the night of the clincher, the Ducks' goal-scorers were, in order, Thomas, a trade-deadline acquisition from Chicago, 20-year-old wunderkind Stanislav Chistov; Salei, a defenseman who had only four goals during the regular season; and Ozolinsh, another midseason acquisition from Florida.
Makes you wonder who is destined to score the next big goal as the Mighty Ducks skated into uncharted territory. Also makes you think of Spiezio and Glaus and everything that happened last October.
"It's not over," Kariya said after Monday's game. "It's just the beginning."
It's quite something what the Ducks are doing.
Mighty Ducks bring back memories of Angels
With right ingredients, Ducks cooking up team of destiny.
By RANDY YOUNGMAN
The Orange County Register
ANAHEIM – With World Series MVP Troy Glaus, Game 6 hero Scott Spiezio and four Angels teammates watching from a private suite at The Pond, the planets and the stars seemed properly aligned for another clincher by the other Disney-owned pro sports franchise in Anaheim on Monday night.
This, after all, was Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.
"Game 6 Karma" was the caption on the video scoreboard as the cameras zoomed in on Spiezio midway through the wildest third period of the series, eliciting a roar of approval from the sellout crowd after a clip of Spiezio's pivotal Game 6 homer against the Giants was shown.
And so it almost seemed preordained that the 2002-03 Mighty Ducks of Destiny continued their improbable postseason ride into history Monday night.
Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh slapped a rebound past goalie Marty Turco with 1:06 left in the third period, lifting the Ducks to an exhilarating 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars that makes Anaheim the first team in NHL history to knock off the top two seeds in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In the opening round, the seventh-seeded Ducks grabbed the attention of the hockey world by sweeping the second-seeded Detroit Red Wings, defending Stanley Cup champions, but they still had to prove it wasn't a fluke by conquering the top-seeded Stars to advance to the conference finals for the first time in the 10-year history of the franchise.
The heroes have been numerous, as was the case Monday night when defensemen Ruslan Salei and Ozolinsh scored the third-period goals that enabled the Ducks to avoid a return trip to Dallas for a Game 7 no one wanted to play.
I guess video goal judge Joe Miazgowicz or referee supervisor Jim Christison or whoever it was in the league office in Toronto who ultimately disallowed the tying goal by Stars center Stu Barnes with 7:58 left also qualifies as a hero to the Anaheim faithful.
Then again, the same jury of officials also allowed another tying goal to stand with 5:11 left, even though replays appeared to show that Stars winger Rob DiMaio lifted the toe of his skate to redirect a Sergei Zubov shot into the net.
In the end, all of the video reviews were moot because the Ducks are now headed to Vancouver or Minnesota for the conference finals.
Besides their nightly designated heroes, there also have been three constants in the Ducks' giant-slaying routine: The Motivator, the Dominator and the Common Denominator.
The Motivator has been Mike Babcock, the rookie NHL coach who has taught his team to believe anything is possible, preaching over and over again that this time of year "is more about will than skill."
It's about both, of course, and now Babcock becomes the first rookie coach to advance to the conference finals since Pittsburgh's Ivan Hlinka in 2000.
"The plan was to find a way to win and get the job done," a jubilant Babcock said after Game 6. "This is beyond our wildest dreams."
Babcock said he was told by team officials that that "both (reviewed) goals should have been waved off," but it doesn't matter now.
The Dominator has been goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the No. 1 star in almost every game the Ducks have won, including four in overtime and a few in which the Ducks were outshot and outplayed and probably deserved to lose.
In Monday's clincher, Giguere bounced back from a subpar performance in Game 5 by once again making the key saves in a game the Ducks were outshot.
The Common Denominator has been General Manager Bryan Murray, the man most responsible for the most successful season in Ducks history.
After being asked to move from the bench to the front office after last season, Murray knew exactly what needed to be done to improve the team, so he proceeded to systematically overhaul the roster, acquiring the veteran talent needed to surround franchise player Paul Kariya and complement the rising young stars on the team.
Murray brought in Ozolinsh, Petr Sykora, Adam Oates, Steve Thomas and Rob Niedermayer, all of whom have played integral roles in the team's NHL-best regular-season turnaround from 69 to 95 points, as well as in the team's postseason run toward Lord Stanley's Cup, a photo of which is prominently displayed in the home dressing room.
And why is Murray the Common Denominator? Simple. The Ducks became the first team to knock off the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the same season since the 1995-96 Florida Panthers, another huge underdog that advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to Colorado.
The general manager of that Florida team, which defeated No. 1 seed Philadelphia in the conference semifinals and No. 2 seed Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals, was some guy named Bryan Murray.
Same guy.
Destiny, indeed.
"I remember we beat two great teams, but I wasn't sure they were No. 1 and No. 2 until somebody reminded me recently," Murray said Monday. "Time goes by so fast."
Any similarities between those Panthers and these Ducks?
"Quite a few," Murray said. "The goaltending was key for us, with (John) Vanbiesbrouck, just like it is now with Giguere. That also was a checking team that didn't score a lot of goals. And that was a real team, not a lot of stars, like this one."
Yes, this Ducks team is a mosaic of a selfless players. There are no Ducks players among the top 25 scorers in the postseason, and nobody has had more than six points in the 10 playoff games.
On the night of the clincher, the Ducks' goal-scorers were, in order, Thomas, a trade-deadline acquisition from Chicago, 20-year-old wunderkind Stanislav Chistov; Salei, a defenseman who had only four goals during the regular season; and Ozolinsh, another midseason acquisition from Florida.
Makes you wonder who is destined to score the next big goal as the Mighty Ducks skated into uncharted territory. Also makes you think of Spiezio and Glaus and everything that happened last October.
"It's not over," Kariya said after Monday's game. "It's just the beginning."
It's quite something what the Ducks are doing.