Mighty once and for all.
The Ducks, once derided by hockey purists for their goofy nickname and cartoonish logo, completed their ascent to the top of the NHL by winning their first Stanley Cup championship with a 6-2 rout of the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night at the Honda Center.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday June 08, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Hockey: A chart in Thursday's Sports section listed Tampa Bay as the Stanley Cup champion in 2005. The 2005 NHL season was canceled because of the lockout; Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup in 2004.
As a standing-room-only crowd of 17,372 stood on its feet and roared in the final four minutes, the Ducks, winning the series in five games, brought home the trophy they openly talked about pursuing when training camp began in September.
"I think we've been holding back on the emotions for the last couple of days and it's one of those things that's kind of surreal at this point," Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. "You can't really fathom that we've got it done."
Scott Niedermayer, the Ducks' captain, was named the Conn Smythe winner as the most valuable player in the postseason.
In its 13th season as an NHL franchise, the team formerly known as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim became the first California-based team to win the Stanley Cup and the first out of the Pacific time zone to win it all since the 1925 Victoria Cougars.
The Ducks announced they were serious about attaining a title when they acquired Chris Pronger last summer and then rose to the league's elite with points in their first 16 games to set a record.
An early-season blitz through the NHL had Anaheim at a league-best 27-4-6 in December before injuries threatened to evict them from the penthouse. But the Ducks got healthy and prospered in the end as they never needed a seventh game in the playoffs to oust Minnesota, Vancouver, Detroit and, finally, Ottawa.
Having come up short last season with a loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals, Ducks General Manager Brian Burke immediately decided to shoot for the Cup.
"I thought we could get here," Burke said. "We sat down after we lost to Edmonton last year and said what were we missing. What was the difference in that series? We felt if we could add one more elite defenseman and we made a list.
"We didn't know if we could go and get him or not. But as soon as we knew Chris Pronger was available, we turned over every stone to get him."
The final victory was a mirror image of their season.
Andy McDonald and Rob Niedermayer helped them bolt out to a two-goal lead after one period, but the Ducks stumbled a bit in the second and saw their lead cut to one twice by the Senators' Daniel Alfredsson before putting the game away with goals by Francois Beauchemin, Travis Moen and Corey Perry.
