Ducks Shut Down Blackhawks

The Mighty Ducks' defense did it all, even the offense.

Anaheim defensemen Niklas Havelid and Ruslan Salei scored two minutes apart in the second period, and goaltender Guy Hebert stopped 21 shots in a 2-0 victory Friday night over the Chicago Blackhawks.

"It was a terrific game by our defense," said Anaheim's Paul Kariya, who assisted on Havelid's goal. "I thought they played extremely well. They were blocking shots and scored two very big goals for us."

The shutout was Hebert's third of the season and 25th of his career.

The shutout continued what has been a solid defensive run by the Mighty Ducks, who have allowed only nine goals in their last seven games.

Hebert, meanwhile, has held the opposition to two or fewer goals in 15 of the last 18 games he has played.

The Mighty Ducks won three in a row for the first time this season after winning two straight six different times.

Hebert liked that even better than putting up a goose egg for Chicago.

"It's even more important that we finally got the third win in a row," he said. "We've been nibbling at it all year long."

Said Kariya: "It's nice to get the monkey off our back and get a little bit of a roll going."

Havelid snapped a scoreless tie with his second goal of the season, 7:25 into the second period. He fired from the top of the left circle and the puck slipped just inside the near post and under the stick of goalie Joelyn Thibault, shielded on the play by Anaheim's Teemu Selanne.

Anaheim struck again when Salei, also getting his second goal, scored on a power play.

Salei finished up a fine sequence of crisp passes on the scoring play. Tony Donato, near the blue line, passed to Matt Cullen, who was behind the goal line, and Cullen quickly wristed a pass out to Salei, alone as he skated down the left side.

The Mighty Ducks, on the attack most of the game, got off 30 shots against Thibault.

"We worked really hard, but you can't win the game getting off only five or six scoring opportunities," Thibault said. "I've got to give the team a chance to win every game. I'm not going to let my win-loss record (3-11-3) affect me."

Anaheim has been dominating Chicago in their series recently, going 7-1-1 in the last nine meetings, including 2-0-1 this season. The Mighty Ducks also have lost just three of the last 15 games against Chicago, although the Blackhawks still hold a 13-12-3 edge in the all-time series.

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