ANAHEIM, California, 18 May 2003 — Adam Oates scored two power-play goals to put the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim into the Stanley Cup finals with a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild in Game Four of the Western Conference finals on Friday.
The victory in front of 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond gave the Mighty Ducks a four-game sweep of the best-of-seven series and put them into the NHL championship series for the first time in their 10-year history.
Anaheim will play either the New Jersey Devils or the Ottawa Senators. Mighty Ducks captain Paul Kariya expressed his team’s desire for the Stanley Cup by refusing to touch the Clarence Campbell Trophy, emblematic of the Western Conference championship, after the game.
“It’s not the trophy we’re after,” Kariya said. “I really didn’t want to have anything to do with it, so I left it there.”
Minnesota reached the conference finals by overcoming 3-1 deficits against Colorado and Vancouver in the first two rounds, but Wild goalie Manny Fernandez said the Mighty Ducks’ discipline made the difference.
“They wait for their chances and they don’t open up,” said Fernandez, who made 26 saves. “Colorado and Vancouver pressed a little more, so that opened up the middle of the ice for us to get some scoring chances. They really fought hard for it. They played amazing.”
Oates broke a 1-1 tie at 9:31 of the second period with his second goal of the game.
Rob Niedermayer fanned on a shot but the puck deflected off and Wild defenseman Filip Kuba. Oates, waiting at the left post, jammed it under Fernandez’s right leg pad.
“I’m trying to distract the defenseman in front of the net,” Oates said. “Mike (Leclerc) brought the puck toward the net and passed it. It went off a skate and it came right to me.”
Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who stopped 24 shots, made his two most critical saves during a Minnesota power play later that period.
Giguere used his right leg pad to stop Andrei Zyuzin from point-blank range at the left post, then made a glove save on Cliff Ronning’s slap shot from the top of the slot.
The Montreal native — celebrating his 26th birthday — made another big save with 11 seconds to play, when he blocked Sergei Zholtok’s wrist shot in front of the crease.
“It’s a great birthday present, something I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid,” said Giguere, who stopped 122 of 123 Minnesota shots in the series.
In a desperate attempt to keep the series alive, the Wild had six attackers on the ice after pulling Fernandez with 56 seconds on the clock.
However, Anaheim held firm and as the game wound down, fans stood chanting “sweep, sweep” and waving white terry-cloth “fowl towels” that management distributed before each game.
Andrew Brunette gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead in the first period by scoring the Wild’s first goal of the series and first on a power play.
Brunette, stationed at the right post, redirected Ronning’s wrist shot from the slot at 4:37. Minnesota had previously failed to convert 12 power plays in the series.
That goal ended Giguere’s streak of 217 minutes, 54 seconds of shutout goaltending.
The streak is the fifth-longest in Stanley Cup history and the longest in 52 years. But nearly four minutes after Brunette scored, Oates tied the score with his first goal.
Mike Leclerc’s wrap-around pass deflected off Zyuzin and teammate Brad Bombardir. The puck caromed to Oates, who poked it inside the left post at 8:20.
The Wild’s single tally set a record for fewest goals in a four-game series, surprising for a team which led the playoffs with 42 goals. “To give up one goal in a series is unbelievable,” a delighted Anaheim rookie coach Mike Babcock said.
