They Are Making the Experts Look Bad

DENVER — For every question about their ability to compete in the playoffs, the Mighty Ducks have provided a persuasive answer.

To the so-called experts who said the Ducks were swift and skillful but too soft to beat the Calgary Flames in the first round, they responded with a grinding game that wore down the bigger, slower Flames over seven games.

To the doubters who said the Colorado Avalanche had too much scoring depth and experience to lose to a team that was relying upon an obscure rookie goaltender, the Ducks had an emphatic response for that, too.

In wrapping up a sweep of their second-round series with a 4-1 victory at the Pepsi Center, the Ducks on Thursday brought down the curtain on a remarkable era for the Avalanche that featured Stanley Cup championships in 1996 and 2001. The Avalanche had never been swept since it moved from Quebec to Denver before the 1995-96 season, but this team in no way resembled those that Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy so boldly led.

Lax defensively and thin up front, the Avalanche couldn’t match the Ducks’ resilience or resourcefulness. Joe Sakic led a strong first-period effort Thursday, but the Ducks retrenched to pull even before the period ended. They never looked back, fueled by strong penalty killing that has not given up a power-play goal in 36 disadvantages and a finer effort by goalie Ilya Bryzgalov than he’d produced in shutting out Calgary in the first-round finale and Colorado in the first two games of this series.

“Now that it’s said and done, it is a little surprising that we were able to sweep them, but we played great,” said winger Joffrey Lupul, the Ducks’ top scorer in this series with six goals and seven points.

“You go into every game expecting to win, but not every time does it happen that you sweep a team of this caliber.”

A new era appears to be dawning in the NHL, one that will be dominated by teams that can defend vigorously but not exclusively, and can skate and hit and add a dash of creativity. The Ducks are at the forefront of that pack, perhaps soon to be joined by the San Jose Sharks, who lead the other Western Conference semifinal, 2-1, over the Edmonton Oilers.

Whether the Sharks move on and set up the first all-California playoff series since the Kings defeated the then-Oakland Seals in 1969, or if the Oilers can rally, the Ducks’ next opponent will face a team that is maturing by the day, that is learning its own strengths and enjoying its success without being seduced by it.

“I think the Calgary series helped our confidence,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell said. “If people had questions about us, it was about whether we were physical enough. Now, we feel we can play a lot of different ways. If a team doesn’t play a certain way, we can still have success.”

O’Donnell, acquired at the trade deadline from the Phoenix Coyotes, acknowledged that the Ducks’ success has surprised him.

“When I came here, I certainly didn’t see this,” he said, looking around the jubilant locker room. “I think we were in ninth place and we were just trying to get into the playoffs.

“I’m thankful every day to be in this organization and to be part of this.”

Every member of the Ducks played his part perfectly, from Bryzgalov’s poised efforts as the replacement for 2003 playoff MVP Jean-Sebastien Giguere, to Scott Niedermayer’s ability to control the puck and the tempo of a game, to the emergence of youngsters such as Lupul -- whose first name was again mangled by the arena public-address announcer to become “Jeffrey” -- and Dustin Penner, the 6-4, 245-pound behemoth who managed to escape the notice of 29 NHL clubs and signed with the Ducks as a free agent two years ago.

And there were some superb performances by some not-so-youngsters, such as 35-year-old Teemu Selanne, who was shut down for two games but scored the second goal Thursday, and Todd Marchant, who scored twice Thursday and has provided guidance and great passes for his wingers, Lupul and Penner.

Niedermayer pronounced this to be among his most satisfying playoff triumphs. That’s saying a lot, because as a three-time Cup champion with the New Jersey Devils he has an ample amount of pleasant postseason memories from which to choose.

“When a team can come together and just play hard for each other and have a bit of success, it’s really something,” he said. “You need to have different guys step up every game, and that’s what we had.”

He cautioned that the Ducks still have a ways to go, and they do. But they have eight of the 16 victories required to win the Cup, and that’s further along the trail than anyone else in the NHL. “It hasn’t really sunk in that much,” Lupul said. “We’re halfway as far as wins go, but we know it’s just going to get tougher.”

Perhaps it will.

But it would be a mistake to doubt that the Ducks will be capable of meeting whatever challenge awaits them.

“Any time you win two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs you should be proud of yourself,” O’Donnell said. “It wasn’t by magic or pulling strings.

“And the thing is, we feel like we still have some real good hockey left in us.”