• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Schneider, Neidermayer lead Ducks over Blue Jackets

Nov 2, 2007 - 6:27 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Mathieu Schneider returned to the lineup and made an immediate impact in his first game of the season.

Schneider logged nearly 25 1/2 minutes of ice time and tallied the shootout winner and Rob Neidermayer scored in regulation for the Anaheim Ducks, who notched a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 19 shots in 65 minutes and turned away all three shootout chances he faced for the Ducks, who snapped the Blue Jackets' four-game winning streak.

Ryan Getzlaf had the first shootout chance for Anaheim but was denied by goaltender Fredrik Norrena, who stopped 33 shots before the bonus format. After Sergei Fedorov hit the side of the net on Columbus' first opportunity, Schneider squeezed a shot between Norrena's pads to put the Ducks in front.

"I thought I had it first, but it just sneaked through my legs," Norrena said.

Signed as a free agent over the summer to help alleviate the absence of Scott Niedermayer, who still is contemplating retirement, Schneider suffered a fractured ankle in the preseason and missed Anaheim's first 13 games.

Schneider had never participated in a shootout before Thursday.

"I thought he was kidding at first," Schneider said when told by coach Randy Carlyle he was participating. "(I just thought), 'Don't fan on it.'

"I would have never imagined that finish. I thought we played a great game. We deserved to win that in regulation. Even in overtime, we had some great chances."

Carlyle said it was a gut feeling to have Schneider shoot.

"Tonight, we found a way to win a shootout. We haven't had that much success in shootouts," he said. "We decided to change it up a little bit. With (Schneider) not having been available to us for quite some time, we felt it was time for him to earn some of his keep.

"It was just one of those things that you do on the bench and you make a decision, you go with it. We're not going to get too high with the shootout win because our motto's been, 'We won't get too low when we lose one.' We won an extra point tonight. We competed hard. We were a physical team to play against. It was one of those hockey games that would have been a shame to lose."

Giguere stopped Rick Nash and David Vyborny to clinch the win, Anaheim's first in a shootout since March 4. The Ducks had lost five consecutive shootouts.

"At the end of the day as a goalie, all you can do is try to make saves," Giguere said. "You can't score goals and stuff like that, so you have to try to give your team a chance to win and hope that guys like Schneider are going to put it in."

Giguere said Schneider's return to the ice was a huge boost for the Ducks.

"He has so much experience," Giguere said. "He's the type of guy who gets the puck to the net on the power play. I think it's going to take a lot of pressure off of (Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin), who were playing a big amount of minutes. I think to have three almost All-Star players like that on our defense is really going to help us."

Despite Anaheim totaling 22 shots in the first two periods, the game remained scoreless until the final session.

The Ducks struck first just 13 seconds into the third, when Rob Niedermayer took a pass from Samuel Pahlsson and skated from the right faceoff circle past defenseman Kris Russell to the slot, where he took a shot that went between Norrena's pads but came out to the side of the net.

Rob Niedermayer drew blue-liner Ron Hainsey to the ice and skated to the front before finding the loose puck and putting it past the goalie's right skate for his first goal of the season.

Returning to the lineup after missing three games with a groin injury, Rob Niedermayer scored for the first time in 38 regular-season contests dating back to February 6.

Nikolai Zherdev tied it for the Blue Jackets with a power-play goal at 3:46. Hainsey took a slap shot from the blue line that Giguere stopped, but Zherdev put the rebound into an open net for his third of the season.

"Our focus has been just trying to get pucks on the net for rebounds on the power play," Hainsey said. "There were some good shots early on but through a lot of traffic. (Zherdev) just did a good job going to the net and finishing."

It was just the second power-play tally the Ducks have allowed at home in 35 chances this season.

"We were certainly a little nervous down the stretch, when they stayed in it as long as they did, but (Giguere) made some great saves when he had to, and that was the difference," Schneider said.

"I thought I played pretty well," Norrena said. "I haven't played for a week, but I felt excellent. I just want to keep it up like that. All of us goalies just try to help the team win."

In a contest that was contentious throughout, the end of the second period saw a pair of fights. Anaheim 's Travis Moen squared of with Columbus ' Jared Boll, who had knocked Moen out of the team's previous meeting with a shoulder to the head.

The Blue Jackets' Jason Chimera then fought Ducks defenseman Shane Hnidy. Throw in 10-minute misconducts to Anaheim 's Andy McDonald and Columbus ' Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, and 11 penalties totaling 50 minutes were whistled in the period.

"They know that we're tough and they're going to finish their check against us, but we're not intimidated and we're going to do the same," Giguere said. "If anybody wants to fight, we have guys that can step up, and we showed that tonight."

"They played a good physical game," Hainsey said. "We responded, I think, with some fights, so it was an exciting game to play."

Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said he was expecting a physical game.

"Anaheim's been sitting at home for four or five days, getting rest and adding three (injured) players back in. For us, this was a great point," he said. "We're learning how to compete at a really high level to be successful. We just played against the Stanley Cup Champions, and we see what that level's like and we're trying to get there."