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Huskins gets first NHL goal for Ducks
2007-10-16
Defenseman Kent Huskins notched his first NHL goal four months after winning his first Stanley Cup ring. And it couldn't have come at a better time for the Anaheim Ducks, who struggled offensively through their first seven games of the season. Huskins made a nice move in front of the net before putting the puck past six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek less than 2 minutes into the game, triggering Anaheim's 6-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night. "It was a great feeling," said Huskins, a sixth-round draft pick by Chicago in 1998 who played in 33 regular-season games and 21 playoff games for the Ducks. "Our team's been having some problems scoring some goals, so to be able to contribute like that felt pretty good. I didn't have too much time to think about it, and that's probably a good thing. I was lucky it just kind of squeezed through his arm pit." Playing home games on consecutive nights against teams they eliminated from the playoffs last season presented the Ducks with a stiff challenge, considering how depleted their roster is. So they were happy to come out of it with a satisfying split. "When you're fortunate enough to win a championship, you kind of have a target on your back and teams are going to be geared up to play you," Huskins said. "It's going to be a common theme, so we're going to have to be ready for that the rest of the year." In the other NHL games on Monday night, it was Buffalo 5, Toronto 4 in overtime and San Jose 4, Vancouver 2. Anaheim's Todd Bertuzzi was out with a concussion, Todd Marchant was sidelined with a bruised right ankle, and Mathieu Schneider is still at least two weeks away recovering from a fractured left ankle. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who made his season debut in Sunday's 2-0 loss to Minnesota, is not yet able to play consecutive games -- and Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer are contemplating retirement. "We were short-staffed. It's not easy to replace those people in your lineup, but it's a situation where other people have an opportunity to play more and others to step up," coach Randy Carlyle said. Samuel Pahlsson scored a short-handed goal with 10:58 left in the third period, giving the Ducks a 4-3 lead. Andy McDonald, Chris Kunitz, Corey Perry and Sean O'Donnell also scored for Anaheim and Ryan Getzlaf had three assists. "It's exactly what we expected. Nothing surprised us," Hasek said. "They are a physical team, and a good offensive and defensive team. Even though they didn't score too many goals until tonight, you knew sooner or later it was coming. And unfortunately, they scored six against us." Kris Draper, Henrik Zetterberg and Brian Rafalski scored for the Red Wings, who returned to Anaheim for the first time since being eliminated from the playoffs in game 6 of the Western Conference finals. Tomas Holmstrom was assessed six minor penalties, including a tripping infraction that resulted in Perry's power-play goal with 4:40 remaining. Holmstrom had only three minor penalties through Detroit's first six games. "There seem to have been a lot of penalties in the last two games, for some reason. I really don't know why, but we've been on the short end of it," Rafalski said. Rob Niedermayer chipped the puck away from Rafalski just inside the Anaheim blue line and took off on a 2-on-1 break with Pahlsson, who beat Hasek from close range for his seventh career short-handed goal and a 4-3 lead while Perry was serving a holding penalty. "I was probably the happiest guy in the arena," Perry said. "It was just nice to see out P.K. come through for us. We didn't play our best game last night, so we had to come out tonight and play our style of game. That was probably one of our better games. There were a lot of guys who stepped up." Sabres 5, Maple Leafs 4, OT Ales Kotalik scored on the power play with 4 seconds left in overtime to give host Buffalo its third straight win. His slap shot from the left circle was stopped by goalie Andrew Raycroft, but Toronto defenseman Bryan McCabe inadvertently knocked the puck into his own net. Jason Pominville and Jochen Hecht had a goal and an assist each, and Adam Mair and Thomas Vanek also scored for Buffalo. Jocelyn Thibault made 21 saves in his season debut with the Sabres. Chad Kilger had two goals and an assist, Nik Antropov added one of each, and Simon Gamache also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have lost three of four. Sharks 4, Canucks 2 Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo scored in a 3:20 span early in the third period for visiting San Jose. Evgeni Nabokov finished with 24 saves and was credited with an assist on Steve Bernier's goal that came on a 5-on-3 with 5 minutes left in the second period. Taylor Pyatt and Henrik Sedin scored for the Canucks, and Roberto Luongo made 30 saves.
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