Scott Niedermayer leaned over the boards while sitting on the Mighty Ducks’ bench Wednesday night. Jeff Friesen had scored an empty-net goal seconds before to cap a 3-0 victory over Calgary that advanced the Ducks into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Up and down the bench, players were celebrating. Not Niedermayer, who carried a look of an adult trying to remember how to do algebra.
“I was happy,” Niedermayer said Thursday. “That’s just my makeup. I don’t get too excited either way. It was definitely a great accomplishment and I was proud of the way my teammates played to win that series. At the same time, I don’t know what it accomplished.”
Translation: There are still three playoff series between the Ducks and the Stanley Cup.
That kind of tractor-beam focus is why the Ducks went about wooing Niedermayer last summer, signing him to a four-year, $27 million contract. It is also a big reason that he is once again a candidate to win the Norris Trophy, given to the NHL’s top defenseman.
“I think that shows the type of season he has had and the type of player he has been over the years,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said.
Niedermayer, the Dallas Stars’ Sergei Zubov and the Detroit Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom are the three finalists for the trophy, the NHL announced Thursday. Niedermayer is the only one of the three whose team is still in the playoffs.
The Ducks face Colorado tonight at the Arrowhead Pond in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Niedermayer had more than a little to do with the Ducks advancing. He had two goals – including the Game 6 game-winner – and three assists against Calgary, while shadowing the Flames’ Jarome Iginla throughout the series.
“I feel very safer when he is on the ice,” Ducks goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov said.
Or, as rookie defenseman Francois Beauchemin said, “When you play with Scott, you’re less nervous.”
Niedermayer, who won the Norris Trophy in 2004, had a career high with 50 assists and 63 points during the regular season while averaging 25 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time per game.
More important, he may have brought the Ducks steel-eyed vision beyond the first round.
“That’s just his way,” said Ducks forward Rob Niedermayer, Scott’s brother. “He doesn’t get rattled and he doesn’t get too excited.”
Seventh heaven
Friesen has been in the playoffs five times now when a series reached a seventh game, and he remains undefeated. Friesen has scored five goals in those five games.
“I don’t know if there is any way to explain that,” Friesen said. “But it seems I always get on a team that is built for Game 7 success.”
That would include the New Jersey Devils in 2002-03, when he scored two goals against the Ducks in a 3-0 victory in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.
