Mighty Ducks Join the Choir to Promote Unsung Hebert

ANAHEIM — Quick, name a great team with bad goaltending.

Stumped?

You should be. Winning and standout goalies tend to go together like ice and pucks as the Mighty Ducks once again showed Wednesday night at the Pond.

Today, the Ducks are tied for sixth place in the Western Conference. They owe this to the scoring of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, of course. But they also wouldn’t be where they are without goalie Guy Hebert.

“He’s probably one of the most unsung goalies in the league,” Duck winger Brian Bellows said after the Ducks’ 4-1 victory over Ottawa. “I’ll be honest with you, I only saw him twice last year and one time the Ducks were at the end of a long road trip, but I think he’s probably one of the league’s 10 best.”

Bellows played with Patrick Roy in Montreal when the Canadiens last won a Stanley Cup, defeating the Kings in 1993, so he has seen some hot goalies in his day.

“I’ve noticed his confidence level has risen just in the time since I’ve come here,” said Bellows, acquired in a November trade with Tampa Bay. “We don’t want him scalding just yet. Well, we do, but we don’t. We want him to keep getting better and better.”

Winger Teemu Selanne has been with the Ducks a bit longer than Bellows and he recalls Hebert’s hot streak down the stretch last season. But Hebert might be poised for something even better, according to Selanne.

“He’s playing unbelievable,” Selanne said. “For sure, we want to help him defensively. But he’s just making unbelievable saves.”

Hebert stopped 39 of 40 shots Wednesday, but the Senators’ scoring chances amounted to just a handful by game’s end. Tom Chorske’s shot from the left faceoff circle at the 10:42 mark of the third period was the only one Hebert didn’t stop.

“You saw 40 shots on the scoreboard tonight, but there were not a lot of odd-man rushes,” Hebert said. “The defense was great.”

The victory extended Hebert’s unbeaten streak to a season-high six games (4-0-2). He has a 1.62 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage in the past six. And he’s given up two third-period goals in the past six games.

“I feel pretty good,” Hebert said. “Actually, the coaching staff has done a great job of not overworking me on practice days. They’ve been really flexible about letting me get off the ice. Sometimes being the last guy off the ice in practice can be detrimental.”

Duck Coach Ron Wilson has been loath to change up the team’s lineup for fear of altering its chemistry. But he figures he’s got to find Hebert a night off eventually. Just when to slip backup Mikhail Shtalenkov into a game is the difficult part, however.

Hebert has started 32 of the past 33 games, but the Ducks still have two more games on consecutive nights.

“In a perfect world, you’d like to give Guy a rest and get Mikhail in there,” Wilson said. “I know at some point Mikhail is going to have to play. “But I don’t want to put Mikhail into a difficult situation where Guy’s tired and the rest of the team is tired.

“I won’t hesitate to pull Guy if he looks pooped out there in the first period. We’ve done that in the past and given him some rest that way.”