Familiar Finn has Ducks in line for a crown

Funny how things work.

Los Angeles has a hockey team called the Kings, who, almost annually are dead ducks. Anaheim has a hockey team called the Ducks who, in this season’s NHL playoffs, might very well be the kings.

Friday night, at the Honda Center, the Ducks looked dead for a while, but lived on in a 3-2 victory and took a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series.

The Ducks had to overcome the frequent absence of winger Chris Kunitz, who apparently liked the furniture in the penalty box. The Ducks started the second period a man short, and that man was Kunitz, who sat out the first 19 seconds of the period. Soon, he was back twice more, hooking, slashing and tripping his way to sideline solitude.

That meant that the Ducks’ offensive firepower, namely top scorers Teemu Selanne and Andy MacDonald, were mostly resting and watching while the firemen, the penalty killers, were attempting to make amends for Kunitz’s naughties. They mostly succeeded, giving up one goal just three seconds after Kunitz got out of the penalty box but getting one back for a 2-1 lead.

That second goal was a Ducks’ power play, and came off the stick of defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who also scored the first goal, a first-period bullet from dead center and a step inside the blue line. Then, with 1:17 left in the second period, while the Ducks were killing off another penalty, center Ryan Getzlaf got a loose puck, skated in on goal with Minnesota’s Martin Skoula hanging all over him, and slipped the puck high into the net.

It was a 3-1 lead, but the crucial goal, taking place when the Ducks seemed to be merely hanging on for dear life, was the one that sent the chins of the Minnesota players dipping toward their chests.

Same thing happened in the 2-1 Ducks’ win Wednesday night, and two of the same players were involved, although this time, in reverse order.

Wednesday night, Beauchemin spotted Selanne a step behind the defense, yanked the puck down ice perfectly, like Tom Brady leading a receiver, managed to get it into the zone just before Selanne to avoid the offside and let the veteran speedster, with perhaps the best first step in the game since Bobby Hull, finish. Goal to Selanne, assist to Beauchemin.

Friday night, Selanne started the play on Beauchemin’s goal by getting two quick shots and having the second rebound float back out to the center, where the puck eventually got to Beauchemin. Goal to Beauchemin, assist to Selanne.

Beauchemin’s two goals marked the third time in Ducks’ history that a defenseman had scored two goals. Selanne’s assist and ever-threatening offensive presence was merely business as usual.

In a myriad of ways, Selanne has been the man for the Ducks this season. At 36, and in his second go-around in Anaheim. He led the Ducks with 48 goals this season and is a candidate for the NHL’s most-valuable-player award.

He has several years left as a player, but if he has anything to say about it, his career will finish in Anaheim. He calls this team and arena, located just down the street from Disneyland, “his happy place.”

And who could argue. He makes $3.75 million, and if the Ducks win the Stanley Cup, he could finish the 2006-07 season with bonus add-ons that would pay him a total of $6 million. He lives in golf heaven at Coto de Caza, plays to a 6.7 handicap and has three sons -- ages 11, 9 and 7 -- he is teaching the game.

“They love hockey, are really into it,” he said Friday, “but I’m forcing the golf on them. It is something they can do forever, and they will thank me for it someday.”

They may not want to get quite as obsessive about it as their father, however.

“When I’m going to play golf the next day,” he said, “I have trouble going to sleep, just thinking about it.”

During the season of the NHL lockout, 2004-05, Selanne played 18 holes of golf each day for 42 consecutive days, and when he goes home to Finland in the summer, when there is daylight much of the time for 24 hours, he plays constantly.

“I played 81 holes one day,” he said.

He also used to race cars at a high level, including the 24 hours of Nuremberg and three world cup auto rallies. He has mostly stopped that now.

“I crashed three cars, demolished them,” he said. “Two in races, one in practice. I walked away every time. But I’ll tell you, later when you are in bed, thinking about it, and what might have happened, you start shaking.”

The man with the charmed life has also won two Olympic medals in hockey for Finland, including a silver in Turin in 2006. But one thing has escaped him. A Stanley Cup.

“That’s every hockey players’ dream,” he said. “The Olympics is the best team over 10 days. The Stanley Cup is the best over 10 months, and over four tough best-of-seven series.”

That precious bowl is still at least 14 more victories, and as many as 26 games, away for Selanne. Winning won’t make Selanne the Great One, the former King who never won a Cup with the Dead Ducks. He’ll just be the best player on Southern California’s first Stanley Cup.

He’ll take that.

Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.