With the Anaheim Ducks celebrating their 30th anniversary this season, now is the perfect time to look back. In the last 30 years, the Ducks have made history — from the Disney days to winning the first Stanley Cup in California and the decade of contention that followed – and there is no shortage of moments that have amazed fans and propelled the franchise to new heights.
This is the sixth and final installment of the countdown. Previous entries can be found here:
5. Comeback on Katella
Anaheim’s second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers in 2017 has already made its way onto the countdown, with Nick Ritchie’s Game 7 goal appearing 15th on the list. However, Ritchie doesn’t get to play the hero in Game 7 without one of the most unbelievable comebacks two games prior.
Game 5 took place on May 5 in the Honda Center. With the series tied at 2-2, an Oilers win would send the series back to Alberta for a potential closeout game. For the Ducks, winning an extended playoff series has been a challenge for years, and this win would give them two tries.
A second-period flurry put the Ducks down 3-0 going into the third period. Goaltender Cam Talbot was lights-out through two-plus frames, including standing tall on a first-period Ryan Getzlaf penalty shot. The Ducks did get a shot past him in the second period, but it was immediately waved off for high-sticking just before the Oilers added their third goal.
With less than four minutes remaining and staring down a three-goal deficit, Anaheim got to work. With an extra attacker on the ice, Getzlaf teed off on a point shot that careened off Leon Draisaitl and into the net for the Ducks’ first goal. Less than a minute later, Cam Fowler found the perfect shooting lane to cut the lead to one, sending the crowd into a frenzy that drowned out the PA announcement of the previous goal.
Now down to the last 20 seconds, Fowler feathered the puck toward the goal. An all-out scrum ensues, and what happens in the pile of bodies is largely up to interpretation. Oilers fans see Ryan Kesler pinning down Talbot, and an honest Ducks fan will admit that even if he was trying to get up, he was taking his time doing it. The result was Rickard Rakell tapping the puck through a series of sticks and between Talbot’s legs for the tying goal. The replay review upheld the goal, completing the comeback for the Ducks and forcing the game into overtime.
Like seemingly every classic Ducks playoff game, Game 5 took multiple overtime periods. With about 13 minutes remaining in the second overtime, Getzlaf found Corey Perry, who skated in on Talbot and waited him out for the game-winning goal. The Ducks would go on to win the series in seven games.
As a personal note to this moment, being a hockey fan in Southern California is a choice. Growing up a Ducks fan put me on an island not just because of the obscurity of the sport, but also because most of my hockey-watching friends are Los Angeles Kings fans. But I got several text messages from friends who don’t watch hockey, making sure I still had a pulse after the comeback. This was a comeback that resonated with the casual fan as well as the die-hards and is more than deserving of a top-5 spot in Ducks history.
4. Niedermayer Forces Overtime…
Despite the age gap between the two franchises, the Ducks and Detroit Red Wings managed to build a significant playoff rivalry before the Red Wings moved to the Eastern Conference in 2013. The Red Wings swept the Ducks in their first two playoff series before Anaheim returned the favor in a shocking 2003 sweep. The two teams met for a fourth time in the postseason for the 2007 Western Conference Final, but any chance of a fourth sweep was dashed as the teams traded wins in each of the first four games.
Related: Revisiting Selanne’s Game 5 Winner of the 2007 West Final
Detroit was nursing a 1-0 lead in the final minute of Game 5, but a Pavel Datsyuk penalty and Jean-Sebastian Giguere on the bench tilted the ice in Detroit’s zone. A Red Wings win would give them a 3-2 series lead with a guaranteed Game 7 at home. With two extra teammates on the ice, Scott Niedermayer found a soft area in front of the goal, and his shot deflected off Nicklas Lidstrom’s stick and behind Dominik Hasek.
Niedermayer’s goal stopped Detroit from taking a stranglehold on the series. This was the most significant goal scored during their 2007 playoff run, and it could only be topped by an overtime winner.
3. …And Selanne Ends It
With a little more than eight minutes remaining in the first overtime period, Chris Pronger harmlessly dumped the puck into Detroit’s zone to initiate line changes. Teemu Selanne and Andy McDonald hopped over the boards and immediately began to work on the forecheck. Selanne pressured Andreas Lilja behind the net and forced him to turn up toward McDonald in the middle of the ice. McDonald put his stick to the ice to force the turnover, and the puck bounced perfectly to the trailing Selanne. A move to the backhand puts Hasek on his side as Selanne roofs it for the overtime winner.
In only 13 minutes of ice time, the series pivoted from Detroit taking control to Anaheim having a chance to advance at home. The Ducks would go on to win Game 6 and advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history.
2. “Off the Floor, On the Board”
The Mighty Ducks were facing elimination and the end of their Cinderella run in Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final. After Anaheim jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, the game became chippy. With a little less than 14 minutes remaining in the second period and holding onto a 3-1 lead, Paul Kariya looked to move the puck into the offensive zone, but he failed to notice Scott Stevens. Stevens leveled a devastating hit on Kariya, whose body laid still as the broadcast camera panned to show the action move across the neutral zone.
There’s a lot to hate about this as a Ducks fan. Kariya, Anaheim’s first superstar, had a history of concussions. Stevens was one of the game’s great punishers of his era, but it’s fair to question whether the open-ice hit was necessary. The ABC broadcast cut to a horrifying close-up of Kariya as his face shield was fogged up. Anaheim was looking at a likely Game 7, but Cinderella’s carriage was beginning to look like a pumpkin as their captain needed help off the ice and into the tunnel.
What happened a few minutes later should never happen again, and it shouldn’t have happened even in 2003. But Kariya returned to the bench in the same period he was just knocked out cold. With less than three minutes remaining in the second period, Kariya received the puck with a full head of steam. He glided across the neutral zone, picked a spot at the top of the faceoff circle, and ripped one past Martin Brodeur. Announcer Gary Thorne’s call of “off the floor, on the board – Paul Kariya” remains one of the greatest calls in hockey history.
The goal gave Anaheim a 4-1 lead and all but assured a seventh game. This goal is sobering in several ways as well. Kariya has since said he doesn’t remember scoring this goal or anything about the seventh game. It was his final goal as a Duck, as contract disputes saw him in a Colorado Avalanche uniform after the lockout. But for one more moment, Paul Kariya, Anaheim’s original Mighty Duck, gave fans the last bit of magic the 2003 team could muster.
1. Ducks Win the Stanley Cup
We’re down to the number one moment in Ducks’ franchise history, and is it any surprise? While the Stanley Cup Final against the Ottawa Senators never felt as dire as their previous series against the Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings, nothing about those victories compared to the final moments of Game 5 of the Final. The Ducks built a 4-2 lead going into the third period, and a Travis Moen goal four minutes into the third helped start the party early in the Honda Center. Corey Perry’s goal with three minutes remaining put the exclamation point on a dominating 6-2 win and the first Stanley Cup in Ducks’ franchise history.
With about three seconds remaining, we see Giguere begin to raise his arms in celebration. He’s one of five players left from the 2003 team that finished a win away from their own Stanley Cup. He wasn’t the Conn Smythe-level dominant that he was a few years prior, but he didn’t need to be. Getzlaf and Perry were the first to embrace him when the clock hit zero. The two would go on to be a dynamic duo for the Ducks for the next decade, but this was their only Cup. Of course, the cameras found a bearded and bawling Selanne, Anaheim’s prodigal son, who came back and put aside a debilitating knee injury to win the only Stanley Cup of his career. And for good measure, captain Scott Niedermayer was able to pass the Cup to his brother Rob, realizing the dream they had when Scott signed in 2005.
While fans wait for the Ducks to capture their second Stanley Cup, they’ll always have the memories of 2007. As the franchise turns 30 years old, it’s emerging from the most significant rebuild in team history. With plenty of talent in the building, they’ll be looking to etch their own history over the next decade. Next week, our countdown of the top 30 players in Ducks history will begin.
