Krog Counts Himself Lucky With Two Goals

In training camp, not much was known about center Jason Krog, who signed with the Mighty Ducks as a free agent during the off-season. That’s not the case anymore.

Krog has emerged as a valuable face-off man and Thursday night he added big goals to his resume.

Krog scored a career-high two goals in the Ducks’ 5-3 victory at Colorado, which ended a season-high seven-game winless streak. Before Thursday, Krog had scored four goals in 55 NHL games. In 28 games with the New York Islanders from 1999 to 2002, he scored twice.

“It’s pretty exciting for me,”Krog said. “The two goals [Thursday] were kind of garbage goals and a little lucky, but I’ll take them.”

Krog, tied for the NHL lead with Montreal’s Yanic Perreault in faceoff winning percentage at 63%, also won a key faceoff near the end of the first period with Colorado ahead, 2-0.

“Coach [Mike Babcock] put me out there at the last second and told me to go out there and win it,” Krog said.

And that’s exactly what he did, not only gaining puck possession for the Ducks but also scoring his first goal with 11 seconds remaining.

“Playing against a team like Colorado and giving them a two-goal lead; just the thought of it [is not good],” Krog said. “Being down only one, it’s still anyone’s game.”

Krog had some luck on his second goal when his shot from inside the blue line bounced off Colorado’s Rob Blake into the net to tie the score at 2-2.

“I haven’t scored two goals before, so it’s very exciting for me,” he said. “And for the team to win, that makes it even better.”

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After 42 games last season, the Ducks were 13-21-5-3 and already were deep into their summer plans. They moved back to .500 at 16-16-7-3 with Thursday’s victory and Babcock is determined to keep their postseason dreams alive.

“Things haven’t been going good for our team since Christmas,” he said. “We hadn’t been playing very well, despite getting three good games from [backup goalie Martin] Gerber.

“We want to be in a competitive environment, and in order to be in a competitive environment, you have to be in the playoff hunt or otherwise it’s just another year.”

Added Petr Sykora, who scored the game-winning goal against the Avalanche, “We either make our move now or we [will] be out of the playoff picture in the next two or three weeks.”