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Sunday, Nov. 7 8:00pm ET
Ducks off to franchise's best start | |||||
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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- When his first child was born, Teemu Selanne had a hat trick. He celebrated another milestone Sunday, his 500th NHL game, with a goal.
"I always want to play well, but some nights I'm just more pumped up than other nights," Selanne said after the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat Edmonton 3-1. "There are so many games, it's hard to get going every night, but the bottom line is, you have to find a way to play well every night." Selanne gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead at 4:07 of the second when he skated down the left wing and got a return pass from Oleg Tverdovsky before beating goaltender Bill Ranford for his 321st career goal. The only players who scored more goals in their first 500 NHL games were Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull and Jari Kurri. "Those guys are unbelievable hockey players. And when you're on a list like that, you know you've done something right," Selanne said. Guy Hebert tied a season-high with 37 saves. Marty McInnis and Matt Cullen also scored for the Ducks, whose 7-6-2 start is the best ever for a franchise that has lost all seven of its season openers. Anaheim's 19 victories against Edmonton are the most the Ducks have had against any opponent since entering the NHL in 1993. Alexander Selivanov scored for the Oilers, who have lost consecutive games for the first time this season and began their five-game road trip by slipping to 0-5 away from Skyreach Centre. "We did everything we planned to do," Oilers coach Kevin Lowe said. "With a little luck, we would have had a better final result." McInnis' goal gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at the 4:49 mark of the first period. Ted Donato carried the puck down the right wing and found McInnis, who shot it in the wide-open net. After Selanne's goal, Selivanov cut the deficit to 2-1 about two minutes later with his ninth goal and sixth in five games. He converted a rebound of Roman Hamrlik's 50-foot wrist shot while Anaheim defenseman Kevin Haller was serving an interference penalty. Todd Marchant found himself on a breakaway less than a minute later, but Hebert refused to go for Marchant's fake and made a stellar save to preserve Anaheim's one-goal lead. Cullen completed the scoring with 2:36 to play, tipping in a slap shot from the left point by Pavel Trnka. It was the only shot on net by the Ducks in the third period. "I didn't know that," Hebert said. "That's a good shooting percentage, though. I don't think the coach can be upset with that, huh?" The Oilers, who set a franchise record low with 11 shots on net in Friday night's 2-1 loss to St. Louis, matched that total in the first 13 minutes of the opening period with the help of three Anaheim penalties in a 4:14 span. "Whenever we play Edmonton, this is the type of game it is -- a little more wide open with both teams getting good chances," Hebert said.
"So I knew they were just going to start throwing everything at the net, and it got me into the flow early."
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Anaheim 3 AUDIO/VIDEO Marty McInnis beats Curtis Joseph. avi: 601 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 |