In This Setup, Penner Calls the Shots Well

DENVER —  The Colorado Avalanche knew that to have a reasonable chance to defeat the Mighty Ducks in their second-round playoff series, it would have to stop Teemu Selanne and Andy McDonald from scoring. And it succeeded admirably Tuesday, holding the potent Duck duo to a combined six shots and no points.

But the Avalanche’s scouting report never picked up on Dustin Penner’s playmaking abilities, which fueled the Ducks’ 4-3 overtime victory and left Colorado facing a forbidding 3-0 deficit that only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders have overcome in a best-of-seven NHL playoff series.

Penner, a 6-4, 245-pound rookie winger, was added to the Ducks’ lineup in the first round to provide muscle and toughness against the scrappy Calgary Flames. On Tuesday, he turned into a finesse player and set up three of Joffrey Lupul’s four goals, the final one by intercepting a pass in Colorado’s end and feeding Lupul for a shot between the faceoff circles that silenced the crowd of 18,007 at the Pepsi Center and left the Avalanche clinging to shakily voiced hopes of extending the series long enough to return to Anaheim for a fifth game Sunday.

“Lupul is making a name for himself right now,” Colorado forward Ian Laperriere said in the team’s silent, subdued locker room. “Good for him. Bad for us.”

Lupul’s success would not have been possible without help from Penner, and he knew it. In tribute, Lupul dubbed him “Oatsie,” in honor of Adam Oates, one of the best playmakers the NHL has ever seen and a catalyst in the Ducks’ march to the 2003 Stanley Cup finals. Penner, who had four goals and three assists in 19 regular-season games with the Ducks, said he planned to give Lupul a hard time about the new nickname and about his four-goal performance.

“He’s going to have to do it again,” Penner said, smiling.

That might be a tough order.

“I know, but I think he’s capable of it,” Penner said.

He might be, if Penner and center Todd Marchant are there to feed him. “We mesh together pretty well. We feed off each other,” said Penner, who combined with Marchant on Sunday to set up Lupul for the final goal of the Ducks’ 3-0 victory at the Arrowhead Pond.

“We have a sniper, a solid, two-way center, and I try to be a big body down low and hold onto the puck.”

For Marchant, the trio’s success is simple.

“It’s not pretty hockey. We don’t pretend to be the Montreal Canadiens of the ‘70s,” said the 32-year-old center, who is playing on his fourth NHL team.

“We’re just a bunch of hard-working kids, I like to say. I’m playing with two kids. I feel like I’m 25. Well, maybe not tonight.”

He was entitled to a weary smile after the Ducks’ 10th game in 19 days, a pace that doesn’t seem to have daunted them. Colorado played its most energetic and forceful game of the series, yet the Ducks had a response for everything the Avalanche threw at them.

“We thought we had the momentum after we tied the game, 3-3. We finished in their end,” Laperriere said. “Then they took the momentum away.”

Joe Sakic, the Avalanche’s captain and leader, said his team played “a lot better” Tuesday than it had in Anaheim. It wasn’t clear if he took comfort from that, knowing that his team had been able to raise its level of play, or if he was discouraged because the Avalanche gave its best and still lost and faces elimination on Thursday at the Pepsi Center.

“It was a battle all game and a battle in overtime,” Sakic said. “We battled in overtime, but unfortunately we lost.

“One thing this team has done all year is fight back and never quit, and we have to do that next game and force the series back to Anaheim.”

The Ducks, he said, hadn’t done anything to surprise him. They’d been among the best teams since the Olympic break, he said, but so had the Avalanche. “We expected this,” he said. “We just didn’t play up to our ability.”

Or maybe it’s that the Ducks are simply better than the Avalanche, deeper and more resourceful and more versatile in the first three games. Although goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov’s shutout streak ended, the Ducks found other ways to win, finding an unlikely playmaker in Penner and a clutch scorer in Lupul and a voice of experience in Marchant.

“I’ve been on lines where we’ve had that chemistry, and you just know where the guys are going to be and make those plays and know their tendencies,” Marchant said, “and I just hope it continues. It’s nice to be able to support other guys like Teemu and Andy Mac. For a while it was that line that kept us going. For a while, it was Ryan Getzlaf’s line, with Corey Perry, and for a while it was Sammy Pahlsson’s line....

“There’s unsung heroes in every playoff, and guys that step up in certain playoff series and certain playoff games. Tonight, it was Joffrey. Before this, it was Bryz.”

And the list grows.