Pahlsson proves to be more than a top defender

His playoff performance suggests that had his career taken a different turn, he might have contended for the Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded to the league's top goalscorer.

Like most young hockey players, Pahlsson dreamed of scoring goals, not preventing them. Goalscorers get the big bucks and the fame. Checking forwards usually go unnoticed, except for occasional sweaty handshakes from grateful teammates.

But somewhere on the journey that took him from his hometown of Ange, Sweden, to Boston and on to Anaheim in a trade during the 2000-01 season, Pahlsson was told to concentrate on defense. He not only made his peace with it, he has thrown himself wholeheartedly into a job that's utterly vital during the playoffs, when an unfinished check or a pass allowed to find its intended target can spell the difference between celebration and elimination.

"I wanted to be a goal scorer, for sure. Everybody wants to be a goalscorer," Pahlsson said. "I wanted to be that too, but there are a lot of guys who are better than me at scoring goals."

You could have fooled the Ottawa Senators on that point.

In fact, Pahlsson did just that Wednesday, scoring in a 1-0 victory that gave the Ducks a prohibitive 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals.

It wasn't a lucky shot, bouncing in off a leg or a skate.

It was a goal scorer's goal, made possible by the defense-first instincts that have made Pahlsson as valuable a player as any on the Ducks this spring.

Pahlsson centers for Travis Moen and Rob Niedermayer on the Ducks' stopper line, whose job is to neutralize opponents' top scorers. All three are big and bruising and revel in a never-give-up mentality that helps them win battles along the boards and withstand punishment around the net.

The trio did a fine job silencing the Senators' top line of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson in Game 1 -- so good that Coach Bryan Murray occasionally took Alfredsson off that line Wednesday in an effort to mix things up.

With Pahlsson winning 10 of 12 faceoffs and his line recording 11 hits, carrying out their defensive assignment in Game 2 would have been accomplishment enough for the trio.

But the biggest stopper didn't stop there.