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Late goals by Scott Niedermayer, Pronger propel Ducks

Feb 26, 2007 - 6:06 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Defensemen Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger are pillars on the blue line for the Anaheim Ducks. The former Norris Trophy winners showed they have offensive talent as well.

Niedermayer snapped a tie with 3:23 remaining in the third period and Pronger added an insurance goal less than a minute later as the Ducks halted a three-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.

The triumph moved the Ducks (36-17-10) five points ahead of the second-place San Jose Sharks (38-23-1) in the Pacific Division.

"We needed this game," Niedermayer said. "The standings are getting pretty tight. It was important to come out and play a lot better than we did in Dallas (on Friday)."

Andy McDonald staked Anaheim to a 2-0 lead in the opening period with his third two-goal performance of the season. But the Avalanche battled back on tallies by Mark Rycroft late in the session and captain Joe Sakic five minutes into the second.

Sakic's goal was the 601st of his career, tying him with Hall of Famer Jari Kurri for 16th on the all-time list.

Teemu Selanne put the Ducks back in front in the final minute of the period with his 37th of the season, but Milan Hejduk converted a power-play chance with 5:07 to go in the third, forging a 3-3 tie.

With time winding down, Niedermayer received a pass from Samuel Pahlsson at the right point and moved to the top of the faceoff circle before wristing the puck past goaltender Jose Theodore, ending a nine-game goalless drought and giving Anaheim a 4-3 edge.

"It was a great play," Niedermayer said. "My brother (Rob) got it up to Sammy, who was in the slot, and he felt pressure and made a great little tip deflection back to me, knowing I would be open. And then with Travis Moen in front of the goal, the goalie couldn't see the puck, and I was able to get it in off the post."

"Last night, we had a two-goal lead and blew that one," said Sakic, who was playing in his 1,300th career game. "(Tonight), you get back into it 3-3 and you end up losing again. It's been our problem all year, and we can't seem to get away from that."

Pronger created breathing room during a man advantage 48 seconds later, blasting a one-timer from the top of the right circle by the former Hart and Vezina Trophy winner for his 10th of the campaign.

"We had all kinds of opportunities and, territorially, we had the advantage, but the scoreboard didn't indicate that," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "They got a late goal on a power play, but the response from our veteran group was probably the key."

McDonald added an assist and Niedermayer also set up a pair of goals for the Ducks, who had lost the previous three meetings between the teams this season.

"It was a good win, being able to bounce back after giving up that power-play goal," Niedermayer said. "It's good to see the team bounce back and make a good effort."

Hejduk had an assist and Theodore made 35 saves for Colorado, which has dropped three straight games and five of six. The Avalanche (29-29-5) remained 10 points behind the idle Calgary Flames (32-21-9) for eighth place in the Western Conference.

"We battled like crazy again tonight, but we didn't get it done," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. "We did a lot of the good things and got ourselves right there with five minutes to go but didn't get it to overtime. We do a lot of good things, but it's the things we've got to try to prevent that we've been stressing and trying to work on."

Colorado defenseman Karlis Skrastins did not play due to a knee injury, ending the Latvian's consecutive games played streak at 495, the longest in NHL history for a blue-liner.

"I knew it wasn't good yesterday," said Skrastins, who was injured in Saturday's shootout loss to Los Angeles. "I didn't think I could play tonight. ... I knew sooner or later it was going to end."

McDonald scored his first goal in nine games 9 1/2 minutes into the game, burying his own rebound for a 1-0 lead, and netted a power-play tally with 5:39 remaining in the session for his 18th of the season.

However, Rycroft tapped the puck between goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere's pads with 1:45 to go for his first goal in 18 contests, halving the deficit. During a power play early in the second, Sakic extended his points streak to 12 games by beating Giguere to the far side from the right circle, tying the contest at 2-2.

Selanne put Anaheim back in front by streaking to the net on the right side and tapping in a pass by McDonald from above the left circle.

"We have don those so many times in practices," Selanne said. "It was a great pass. Obviously, I knew it was going to come and I just tried to go to the back post as hard as I can. It was a great effort by Andy."