Hockey Championships

DALLAS -- Two days of the Ducks' answering questions about the horrid performances in their first two games of the Western Conference quarterfinals was too much to take without some kind of retort. The emphatic answer was on the ice in Game 3. Shaking off blowout losses to the Dallas Stars at home, the Ducks showed they would not let their defense of the Stanley Cup end without a fight in a 4-2 victory that pulled them back into the best-of-seven series at the American Airlines Center.

The new NHL may feature less clutching and grabbing, but the game maintains a physical element that will go a long way in determining this year's Western Conference champion. But if you're expecting more fights, think again. The act of force will happen every time the Ducks dump the puck in a corner behind Detroit's defensemen, particularly veteran Chris Chelios. At 45, Chelios may not be the type of player who can be intimidated.

Brett Hull, one foot in the crease and the other lodged in his mouth, repeatedly called the Ducks "terrible" while they were defeating the Red Wings on Sunday and moving into position to win the Western Conference championship tonight at the Honda Center. Let's analyze this. How is it terrible to pull your goalie for an extra skater late in a game when you have a power play and can create a six-on-four advantage, as Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle did? It's gutsy and it's smart.

Neither really knows the other very well, but Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Miikka Kiprusoff do know there is a symbiotic bond of sorts between them. They know the path through the Stanley Cup playoffs and what success in these games can do for one's career. As the Ducks and Calgary Flames meet tonight in Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round series, the two goaltenders know they'll be under the microscope. "Goaltending is a big part of the game," Giguere said.

Late one recent Sunday afternoon Chris Jarvis began to wonder if his empty Anaheim hockey equipment store would ever see a customer. Then, minutes after another Anaheim Mighty Ducks playoff victory, skates, hockey sticks and helmets flew out the door like 100-mph slapshots. "I knew there was a correlation between how the Ducks played and my business, but I didn't realize it was that obvious," said Jarvis, general manager of HockeyGiant.com, located a few miles from the Arrowhead Pond.

For every setback this postseason, the Mighty Ducks have answered each challenge. So far. After erasing three one-game deficits in the first round against Calgary, why would a loss in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals to the Edmonton Oilers be anything but another hurdle to clear? There is the little prospect of being down two games to none entering Games 3 and 4 at Edmonton's Rexall Place.

The playing surface at the Arrowhead Pond on Friday looked and played like a real pond, mushy in some spots, bumpy in others and altogether inhospitable to swiftly and accurately passing a small rubber disk in a manner that would justify hockey's reputation as the fastest game on ice. "It felt more like an outdoor rink in the springtime when the sun comes out," Mighty Duck right wing Teemu Selanne said Saturday.

To extend the Western Conference finals beyond a fleeting four games, to leave town tonight with hope and a place to be Saturday, the Mighty Ducks must win a game in a series in which they haven't led for a single second of 180 minutes. They must be calm and confident against the Edmonton Oilers, who have poked and prodded them into taking bad penalties and coughing up the puck.

The Edmonton Oilers' fans wouldn't let them lose, wouldn't let them leave Rexall Place without one more triumph that would prolong this wondrously unexpected season. Riding a transfusion of energy from the stands and burgeoning confidence in their hearts, the Oilers toyed with the Carolina Hurricanes in a 4-0 rout Saturday, extending the Stanley Cup finals to a seventh game.