ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -Ottawa’s Ray Emery made more saves, and far more dramatic ones. By comparison, Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere had a blue collar-like game in the net.
Still, at the end it was “Jiggy” and the Ducks with a 3-2 victory over Emery and the Senators in Monday night’s opening game of the Stanley Cup finals.
Anaheim’s defense did a solid job in front of Giguere, limiting Ottawa to 20 shots at him. The Ducks got off 32 at Emery.
The victory ran Giguere’s record this postseason to 10-3, while Emery lost for the fourth time in 16 starts.
Giguere did make a couple of superb saves, including blocking and smothering the puck with bodies crashing in front of him in the waning moments of the game.
He shut out the Senators after allowing a pair of power-play goals: first by Mike Comrie just 1:38 into the game with Scott Niedermayer off for high-sticking, then by Wade Redden for a 2-1 Senators lead at 4:36 of the second period while Ryan Getzlaf was off for cross-checking.
Comrie scored on a relatively routine shot, but Giguere was screened when Redden’s shot got past him.
Giguere, the playoffs MVP when the Ducks made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2003 before losing to New Jersey, has a .930 save percentage and 1.91 goals-against average during this postseason.
While Giguere and the defense kept Anaheim in the game, the brother act of Scott and Rob Niedermayer again helped the Ducks pull out a close one.
Scott passed to his brother, who slid the puck to Travis Moen, and Moen beat Emery for the winning goal with 2:51 remaining in regulation. Scott scored two late winners earlier in the playoffs, with Rob figuring in the play both times.
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