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Wednesday, Jan. 3 10:30pm ET
Tenkrat scores first game-winner for Ducks | ||
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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Mired in the worst goal-scoring drought of his nine-year career, Teemu Selanne should have looked to rookie Petr Tenkrat for guidance. Selanne and German Titov scored 67 seconds apart during the final six minutes of regulation and Tenkrat tallied the game-winner with 59 seconds left in overtime as the Anaheim Mighty Ducks beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 Wednesday night. Tenkrat, who has four goals and four assists in his first 10 NHL games, set up Titov's tying goal with 5:49 left in regulation. He got the puck from Titov in the left circle and sent it back toward the slot, where Titov used Florida's Ray Whitney as a screen and beat Trevor Kidd with 5:49 left in regulation. Tenkrat, a 23-year-old right wing from the Czech Republic, scored his first NHL game-winner with a 15-foot wrist shot to the short side after getting the puck from Titov in the right circle. "He loves to be in a pressure situation," Ducks coach Guy Charron said. "He wants to be the hero. He's an excellent skater and a great shooter." Kidd stopped Anaheim's first 22 shots before surrendering Selanne's 12th goal and first in 15 games since Nov. 22. Marty McInnis' slap shot from the left point caromed off a Florida player right to Selanne, who scored on a power play from a sharp angle to the left of the net. "It was a big relief," Selanne said. "It was huge. I never stopped believing. It was a good feeling." Rob Niedermayer and Pavel Bure scored less than three minutes apart early in the second period for the Panthers, 0-25-6 this season when they allow more than one goal. "When you're up 2-0, you need to close out games like this," Niedermayer said following Florida's fourth consecutive road defeat. "We let them get back into the game and that killed us." The victory ended Anaheim's six-game winless streak, a stretch in which the Ducks didn't score more than two goals in any game. It was the first time they won since team captain Paul Kariya broke a bone in his right foot Dec. 17. The Panthers are 2-13-3 in their last 18 games. They have a league-worst seven victories and 26 points in their first 39 games, after setting club records last season with 43 victories and 98 points. They are 1-2-0 since Duane Sutter and team president Bill Torrey took over for Terry Murray and brother Bryan Murray as coach and general manager, respectively. The Ducks are 3-5-1 since replacing coach Craig Hartsburg with Charron. The game was halted 36 seconds into the second period so the arena's maintenance crew could replace a cracked pane of glass behind the Florida net. The delay took nine minutes, and Niedermayer snapped the scoreless tie 82 seconds later with his fifth goal, and first in nine games. Bure, who led the league last season with 58 goals, made it 2-0 at 4:40 of the period with his 21st. Ducks goalie Dominic Roussel started over Guy Hebert, 0-4-1 in his last five starts. Game notesSelanne, who had 51 shots on net and a total of 303 minutes, 26 seconds of ice time during his 14-game goal drought, has nine goals in 11 career games against the Panthers. ... Panthers center Len Barrie began serving the two-game suspension he got for punching Toronto's Bryan McCabe on Saturday night. Barrie is scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday to stop bleeding from a bruised kidney that sidelined him for two games last month. ... Of the seven NHL expansion teams that entered in the 1990s, the Panthers (.496) and Ducks (.461) are 1-2 in winning percentage. In head-to-head meetings with Anaheim, Florida is 6-4-2. ... Florida center Viktor Kozlov returned to the lineup after missing nine games because of an injured shoulder. ... Of the Panthers' top 17 point-scorers this season, 16 have a negative plus-minus rating. The only exception is Greg Adams, at plus-4. |
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Anaheim 3 AUDIO/VIDEO   Florida's German Titov finds Pavel Bure in front of a wide-open net.avi: 587 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 ATHLETESDIRECT Teemu Selanne Official Site | |