ANAHEIM, Calif. — Teemu Selanne, hampered by a knee that ultimately required reconstructive surgery, had arguably his worst season in the NHL with the Avalanche in 2003-04, scoring only 16 goals in 78 games.
Back then, it seemed extremely unlikely the Finnish winger still would be in the league in 2010, much less reaching another milestone.
With a power-play goal at 34 seconds of the second period in the Ducks’ 5-2 victory over the Avalanche on Sunday night at the Honda Center, Selanne became the 18th player — and third European, following Jaromir Jagr and Jari Kurri — in NHL history to reach 600 career goals.
The 17th? That was the Avalanche’s Joe Sakic, who reached the milestone on Feb. 15, 2007.
Selanne also got his 500th against Colorado, scoring on Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore in Denver on Nov. 22, 2006. At the time, he was the 36th NHL player to reach that benchmark.
Selanne, an Anaheim teammate of Avs coach Joe Sacco’s from 1996-98, scored No. 600 into a virtual open net following a scramble in front and then a pass from Scott Niedermayer.
Earlier, Jason Blake and Matt Belesky had first-period goals for the Ducks, so the historic goal made it 3-0, and the Ducks went on to claim their fourth consecutive victory and keep alive their faint chances of securing a playoff berth.
Sacco replaced goalie Craig Anderson with Peter Budaj after Troy Bodie’s short-handed goal made it 4-0 at 12:45 of the second period.
Although Anderson was far from heroic, giving up the four goals on 19 shots, the Avalanche also was shaky in front of him — and Sacco also undoubtedly was looking ahead to tonight’s game in Los Angeles.
The Avalanche came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Ducks 4-3 at the Honda Center on March 3, but this was too deep of a hole.
Colorado ruined Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller’s shutout bid and at least made it interesting, getting third-period goals from Darcy Tucker and defenseman Ruslan Salei before Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf made it 5-2 at 7:50 with a power-play goal.
If anything positive came out of it for Colorado, it was that the Avalanche didn’t sink any further in the West standings.
The loss kept Colorado in seventh place in the conference, five points ahead of Calgary, the first nonplayoff team in the standings. The Flames lost at Minnesota on Sunday. Colorado also remained six points behind first-place Vancouver in the Northwest Division.
In addition, Colorado still could move back into sixth in the West with a regulation victory over the Kings tonight.
Anaheim won despite not having its leading goal-scorer, U.S. Olympian Bobby Ryan, who missed the game with flulike symptoms.
For Colorado, winger Cody McLeod (leg) and Salei (torso) were back in the lineup after missing two and five games, respectively.
The Avs’ healthy scratches were defenseman Brett Clark and center Chris Durno. Center Stephane Yelle (leg) and defenseman Ryan Wilson (concussion) didn’t make the trip.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
