Teemu Selanne’s 600th goal helps lift Ducks

Teemu Selanne learned to skate in his native Finland at 5 years old, and joined his first team at 8.

“Back home, it’s like in Canada, every corner has a rink, outdoor rinks,” he said.

He scored his first NHL goal at 22, and Sunday night, at 39, he scored his 600th, knocking the puck in from the left side of the net on a power play 34 seconds into the second period after Colorado goaltender Craig Anderson sprawled to stop a shot and Scott Niedermayer passed to Selanne for a wide-open net.

“If I would have missed that, I would have been really disappointed,” Selanne said after the Ducks’ 5-2 win at the Honda Center, their fourth in a row. “That goal was one of the easiest. My daughter would put that in.”

His daughter, Veera, is 2 1/2.

With the goal, Selanne became the 18th NHL player to score 600 goals, and only the third European, behind Jaromir Jagr and Jari Kurri. It was Selanne’s 216th power-play goal, 10th in NHL history.

His teammates emptied the bench, mobbing him in a corner of the ice, and the fans gave him a sustained ovation before Selanne took a little curtain call.

“I don’t like big ceremonies. Even tonight, [ Jason] Blake and a couple of my teammates were pushing me, like go out there, enjoy it,” Selanne said. “I felt embarrassed, stealing the show or something.”

Selanne’s goal broke the sense of anticipation that accompanied almost every shift since his 599th on March 14, with teammates clearly trying to set him up.

“There was a little underlying feeling when you’re on the ice with him,” Niedermayer said. “You want to at least give him the opportunity. It shows what kind of teammate and person he is. He is a great guy and we were definitely pulling for him.”

It’s likely not the final milestone for Selanne — his next goal will tie boyhood idol Kurri at 601 — but he is in the diminishing days of his career after considering retirement before.

He burst into the NHL in 1992-93 with Winnipeg with a rookie-record 76 goals. One of his teammates was Randy Carlyle, now the Ducks coach.

“When you see a guy score his first goal and he scores 76 and you played with him, it seems like it’s a long time ago, but it really isn’t,” Carlyle said. “He’s a hockey player and he was born and bred to do it.”

Injuries have slowed Selanne this season — he has 21 goals but has sat out 26 games because of a broken hand, a broken jaw and a brief illness — but not much else has.

“He’s got speed. He hasn’t lost that,” Carlyle said. “I don’t know if he can go as long, but he’s a guy that when he pushes that button, he can take off.”

On the brink of 40, Selanne has been exceptional as he grew older, scoring 48 goals for the Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup championship team.

Though he started with Winnipeg, 373 of his goals have come as a Duck. He first arrived in a 1996 trade from the Jets to team with Paul Kariya, recording two 50-goal seasons before being traded to San Jose in 2001. He didn’t thrive there, nor in a reunion with Kariya in Colorado, and returned to Anaheim when he signed a modest one-year contract in 2005 after undergoing knee surgery during the lockout year.

The break proved a boon, and he recently competed in his fifth Olympics, earning a bronze medal and becoming the leading scorer in Olympic history.

Selanne remembers his first NHL goal “like yesterday,” he said.

“If somebody had told me at that time, you’re going to score 600 goals in this league, I would call the doctor,” he said.

He’ll remember this one, too.

“I was a little nervous if it doesn’t happen tonight it would happen on the road,” he said. “Having it happen at home is more special.”

Etc.

The Ducks’ Bobby Ryan did not play because of a flu-like illness.... Saku Koivu took a puck off the face and received stitches, but X-rays were negative…. The Ducks signed center Nick Bonino, a Boston University junior, to a two-year contract.

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