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Selanne, McDonald star as Ducks overpower Stars

Jan 12, 2007 - 6:52 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Teemu Selanne helped the Anaheim Ducks take advantage of their power-play opportunities.

Selanne registered his 19th career hat trick, including two man-advantage goals, and Andy McDonald added a career-high four assists as the Ducks rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Dallas Stars.

In notching his first three-goal game of the campaign, Selanne raised his total to 28 tallies, tying him with Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis for the league lead. The "Finnish Flash" also has seven two-goal efforts this season.

"(Selanne) is playing great," McDonald said. "Whether or not he's on the scoresheet, he contributes in other areas. He's a huge part of our team, and we're lucky to have him."

"We have to get better," said Dallas coach Dave Tippett, whose club fell to 1-4-1 in its last six. "We have guys playing in positions that are sort of over their heads, and we need some guys to get better."

Defensemen Scott Niedermayer and Joe DiPenta also scored and McDonald recorded his second four-point performance of the campaign and third career for Anaheim, which won for only the second time in its last seven games.

"It's been a little bit of a tough period," McDonald said. "We've gotten used to having success early, and we expect to win every night. Because we've struggled a little bit of late, it just makes it more frustrating when we don't get the results we're used to. We played hard tonight and it was good to get that kind of win."

The critical juncture of the contest came at 13:50 of the second period. Wit the game even at 1-1, Dallas defenseman Philippe Boucher was assessed a five-minute major for boarding for his hit from behind on rookie Bjorn Melin.

Selanne, who opened the scoring late in the first, gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead when he slid the puck between goaltender Marty Turco's pads with 2:48 to go in the session. Niedermayer doubled the advantage 58 seconds later and, just 32 seconds after the power play expired, DiPenta made it 4-1 in favor of Anaheim, which registered only six shots in the period.

"The end result is that it probably cost us the game," Boucher said. "I felt like (Melin) was sideways when I went in there, and it's very unfortunate. I didn't go in there with the intent to injure or charge. I've never played like that, and I still don't. It's just an unfortunate situation for the team because it probably cost us the game."

"Obviously, that was the turning point," Selanne said. "I was right beside (Melin) and it looked bad. You never want to see that type of thing happen, but because of that, we got those goals. It was the turning point. You have to sacrifice something. Losing teeth, I know how it feels. I don't think (Boucher) tried to hurt him, he's not a dirty player, but it looked scary."

Selanne completed his hat trick when he backhanded a shot past Turco at 8:08 of the third.

"In old times when I was younger, when I got two, I knew I was going to get three," Selanne said. "I wanted the third goal more than the first two. But when you get older, you're not so greedy anymore. A lot of times, I feel almost embarrassed when you get the third one when you're leading by a few."

Defenseman Ric Jackman collected two assists and Ilya Bryzgalov made 17 saves for the Ducks.