We Will Prevail! Ducks 3, Oilers 2

Teemu Selanne now has 1,300 points and 620 goals, reaching ever higher into the rarified air of attaining hockey sainthood.

Luca Sbisa scored his second career goal.

We keep winning while wearing the third jerseys – don’t mess with a good thing!

And Brian “Hazy” Hayward was feted before the game in honour of announcing his 1,000th game.

But those are not the tale of the tape.

What happened to Ducks netminder Curtis McElhinney was not devastating, but it did conjure up memories of Clint Marlachuk:

In the second period, Curtis fell awkwardly onto the skateblade of teammate Maxime LaPierre, cutting himself just under the throat protector. He could feel the injury wasn’t serious, so he just skated over to the bench to be checked out by the trainers. However, the Ref took a look and bumrushed a clearly irritated and frustrated McElhinney off the ice and into the locker room.

Hillsey hurried to see to his equipment as an attendant dashed down the hallway with the mask in order to turn Jonas Skywalker into Darth Hiller.

However, his term between the pipes was to be a brief one, as McElhinney refused to be left out of the fun and evicted Hiller within minutes.

Not having had a start since December 21st or a solid win since November 10th against the Islanders, it’s no wonder Curtis was itching to get back in the net.

Our back-up man comported himself magnificently and helped propel the team to a much needed 3-2 victory against the Oilers.

At the conclusion of the game, the usual goaltender headbutts were accompanied by big hugs, huge smiles, laughter and I do believe someone even kissed the top of Curtis’ noggin.

The Orange County Register posted a nice article about our reserve dude here:

http://www.ocregister.com/sports/mcelhinney-284358-ducks-selanne.html

Oops, almost forgot the game funny. Ahem. I don’t mean to be ‘mean’, but the Oilers suck at penalty scoring. At one point, they had a 6 on 3. On the face off, Saku Koivu broke his stick, which meant it was technically 6 on 2 (or as a Duck put it “6 on 2 ½), and Koivu even hovered indecisively for a few moments before bolting to the bench for fresh lumber – time enough for Edmonton to have crashed the net and scored at least once. So what did they do? They dithered around like a bunch of grandmothers trying to decide what sort of teacakes they should make that afternoon.

Thee most blow penalty I’ve ever seen.

I’m sure Saku Koivu was laughing his butt off all the way home.

And finally, for all of you watching at home the other night, how many of you heard the very loud yell of “Goddamnit Motherf****r!” from the ice?