The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
54°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Anaheim one away

A referee breaks up Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer and Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson in Game 4. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Ira Podell Associated Press
A referee breaks up Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer and Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson in Game 4. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Now that the Anaheim Ducks have that elusive road win, they are ready to do what they do best: close things out at home.

Twice the Ducks have reached the Stanley Cup finals and both times they were perfect on home ice and inept in enemy territory. That all changed in Canada’s capital city on Monday and set up an NHL-style beach party.

Anaheim leads Ottawa 3-1 in the best-of-7 series and can capture the Stanley Cup for the first time tonight. The Ducks are 5-0 in the finals at the place formerly known as the Pond and 7-0 when they have a chance to finish off a series.

“We learned a lot of lessons the last two years,” said captain Scott Niedermayer. “All those past situations, we’ll be able to go back and those will help.”

Anaheim snapped a five-game road losing streak in the finals by beating the Senators 3-2, and did it without key defenseman Chris Pronger, who served a one-game suspension for elbowing Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond in the head during the third period of Game 3.

The Norris Trophy finalist will be back in the lineup tonight in what surely will be a raucous arena ready to celebrate.

Both sides are well aware the Cup will be in the building.

“We can’t change the way we want to play just because of the implications of the game,” Pronger said. “We’ve got to come out and compete and make sure that this is our best game of the series and hope that’s good enough.”

Even if the Ducks lose, hockey history suggests they’re still in good shape to capture the Cup. Only once in 28 chances has a team erased a 3-1 deficit in the finals and skated off with the coveted silver chalice.

The numbers were already working in their favor when they left Anaheim with a 2-0 lead. There is only one team out of 30 that won the first two games at home and blew the series.

Ottawa had plenty to think about Tuesday morning during the team’s five-hour flight back to southern California.

“We were upbeat and we have nothing to lose now,” Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson said. “We’re going to go out there and try to bring it home to Ottawa again for Game 6. There’s no question that we believe we can do that.”

The Senators are 13-6 in the playoffs, winning each of their first three series in five games, while the Ducks are 9-2 at home.

Anaheim beat Minnesota and Vancouver in five, and took out Detroit in six – finishing each series in front of the home folks.

“We’re in this together,” top-line Senators forward Jason Spezza said. “We’ve gotten here together. We’ve gotten ourselves down 3-1 together, and we can get ourselves out of it. But it has to be together.”

Low ratings for Cup

The Stanley Cup finals have brought record low ratings to NBC for a prime-time program, sports or otherwise.

Ottawa’s 5-3 victory over Anaheim in Game 3 Saturday night received a 1.1 national rating and a 2 share, the network said. That matched a rerun of “The West Wing” on July 23, 2005, which also drew a 1.1 rating.