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Pronger, Getzlaf help Ducks eliminate Wild

Apr 20, 2007 - 7:59 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- After a brief hiccup, defenseman Chris Pronger and the Anaheim Ducks continued their postseason dominance of the Minnesota Wild.

Pronger had a goal and an assist and Ryan Getzlaf netted the decisive tally as the Ducks advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a 4-1 victory over the Wild in Game Five of their quarterfinal series.

Rookie Dustin Penner, Samuel Pahlsson and defenseman Scott Niedermayer each collected two assists for Anaheim, which improved to 8-1 all-time against Minnesota in the playoffs.

"It's huge," Pronger said. "We don't have to travel back to Minnesota and give them even more life. It was a close series, every game was one goal either going into the third or a deciding factor."

"Now we can relax a little," said Ducks right wing Teemu Selanne, who needed stitches after being hit with a puck during pregame warmups and also was high-sticked in the second period. "Now I know how Rocky Balboa felt. ... All of us are a bit banged up and we really need (some rest)."

After sweeping the Wild in the 2003 conference finals, the Ducks posted one-goal victories in each of the first three games of this series before dropping a 4-1 decision in Minnesota on Tuesday. But they got back on track in this one as Pronger tallied 62 seconds into the game and Getzlaf scored a power-play goal late in the second period to snap a tie and put Anaheim ahead for good.

"Tonight, we made it our main focus to bounce back," Getzlaf said. "We weren't happy with our effort in the last game and we knew we had to play better in order for our team to succeed."

Corey Perry added an insurance tally midway through the third and Travis Moen added an empty-netter in the final minute to seal the win.

"The kid line comes through in the third to get the third one and then one into the empty net," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said.

Making his first start of the series, Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 26 saves for the second-seeded Ducks, who successfully killed 25 of their 27 shorthanded situations in the series.

"I was fairly comfortable," Giguere said. "I thought the first period was fairly easy. They didn't have many scoring chances. ... That kind of gave me time to find my legs."

"I made the decision after consultation with the coaches," Carlyle said. "My gut feeling was that Giguere would give us the goaltending that was necessary to have success, and I thought his teammates would like to see him play."

Giguere made his series debut in Game Four in relief of Ilya Bryzgalov, who was sensational in the first four contests, allowing just four goals.

"Bryz played unbelievable in the first four games," Giguere said. "He gave us a chance every night. Even the night where he didn't win, I thought he played awesome."

Marian Gaborik scored the lone goal and Niklas Backstrom stopped 35 shots for the Wild, who were outshot, 22-11, in the second period.

"I saw the puck pretty well tonight," Backstrom said. "I thought we played a good game, but it was tough for us to get the puck deep, and we had a lot of turnovers. ... There were always a couple of guys inside the crease, but you have to respond to that."

Backstrom, who led the NHL during the regular season in goals-against average and save percentage, also received praise from his opponents.

"Without Backstrom, this series would have been 4-0," Selanne said. "He was phenomenal. This game would have been 3-0 at the midway point."

"He was always in position," Giguere added. "He's a good goalie, and I think his better years are still ahead of him."

Minnesota, which entered with a 7-1 record when facing elimination in the postseason, went 0-for-5 on the power play.

"That was the difference in the game tonight," Minnesota's Brian Rolston said. "We had a 5-on-3 that we didn't capitalize on, and that cost us. They came out hard and didn't give us a lot of room in the neutral zone."

"Our guys were trying really hard, but they just ran out of juice," added Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, whose team won a pair of series in 2003 when trailing three games to one. "At a time there, I could see it was kind of tough. Skating was not as good as it could be. Guys were a little tired."

With the game just over a minute old, Pahlsson won an offensive-zone faceoff in the left circle, drawing the puck back to Pronger. From the left point, the former Norris and Hart Trophy winner unleashed a slap shot that went just inside the right goalpost, giving the Ducks a 1-0 lead.

"Sammy won the draw clean," Pronger said. "I just kind of got it off the pass, and Robbie (Niedermayer) was screening in front. It might have hit the defenseman, but it wasn't redirected much."

Minnesota drew even while shorthanded in the latter stages of the second period. With tough guy Derek Boogaard serving a double-minor for high-sticking, Wes Walz led a 2-on-1 rush and passed across the slot to Gaborik, who beat Giguere from the left circle with 4:18 remaining for his third goal of the series.

"They came in and made an early pass," Giguere said. "Gaborik has a good shot, so as soon as he got it, he shot it and I just wasn't able to get there in time."

It took Anaheim just 47 seconds to regain the lead, however, as Getzlaf grabbed a loose puck in the low slot and banked a backhander off the left post and in for a 2-1 edge.

"I think it hit the post and went straight across," Getzlaf said. "I was fortunate enough to get a bounce of the air onto my stick. ... It was big to come back after giving up a shorthanded goal on a four-minute power play. Those can kill you, but we bounced back the way we wanted."

Penner, who helped set up Getzlaf's tally, also played a major role in Perry's goal. From low along the right wing boards, he drove to the net and had his shot stopped by Backstrom. Standing in the crease, Perry whacked the goalie's stick, pushing the puck across the goal line at 10:29 for his first career postseason tally.

"Penner's a big boy, and when he goes to the net hard, there's not too many guys in this league that are going to stop him," Perry said. "You've got to play until the whistle, and the whistle didn't go, so I kept hacking away at it. I was just banging away at it and I saw it bounce up in the air.

"Fortunately, it went in. I didn't see it go in, but Penner put up his hands, so I threw up mine, too, because I knew it was in the back of the net."

Backstrom also had no idea the puck entered the net.

"I lost the puck," Backstrom said. "I didn't see how it went in."

Emotions ran high prior to the game, as a scrum between Pronger and Boogaard broke out during warmups.

"It's the playoffs. Emotions run high," Minnesota's Mark Parrish said. "It certainly looked a lot worse than it was. I didn't see how it started. I was in the corner, and all of a sudden, I saw a bunch of guys colliding."

"Their tough guy went and punched Pronger," Selanne said. "I really didn't see what happened, but it was kind of funny. I was kind of expecting there was going to be a little action, but I'm happy nothing happened."

One person that did see what took place was Pronger.

"I got elbowed from behind while standing on the line," he said. "Then (Boogaard) just wanted to be a hero. It didn't work out too well for him."