Ducks win game 5. History on their side

Following Scott Niedermayer's last minute tying goal, Teemu Selanne scored 11:57 into overtime to give the Anaheim Ducks a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings and a 3-2 edge in the Western Conference final Sunday.

NHL history suggests the Ducks are likely to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. 80 per cent of teams that win Game 5 after a best-of-seven was tied 2-2 go on to win the series.

Now on Saturday I had a very well received post on the last Ottawa team to appear in the Stanley Cup finals. While Ottawa was without NHL hockey from 1934 through 1992, the fact is Ottawa hockey fans have not seen a Stanley Cup finals contest since 1927.

Somehow I don't think such a post will work for the Anaheim Ducks, who appeared mighty in a 7 game showdown in the 2003 finals but came up just short.

There are very few players still remaining with the Ducks from that squad. Samuel Pahlsson, Rob Niedermayer and of course Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jean-Sebastien Giguere are the only hold-overs. Andy McDonald was on the team for 46 games that season, but did not appear in the playoffs.

Gone are the previous franchise-faces like Paul Kariya, Steve Rucchin, Petr Sykora, Keith Carney, Mike Leclerc, and Ruslan Salei, all to other teams.

Two players of note have retired. Aging Adam Oates had an incredible playoffs that spring, proving especially valuable on faceoffs and on the power play. Steve "Stumpy" Thomas also had one last great hurrah. After suffering through a miserable season in Chicago, the Ducks picked up the veteran at the trading deadline. The notoriously streaky scorer proceeded to explode for 10 goals in the final 12 games of the season, and scored 4 big goals in the playoffs. In his 19 year career, it was the fire-hydrant sized spark plug's first shot at the Stanley Cup.

Of course I should not count out the Detroit Red Wings just yet. They were the Stanley Cup champions in 2002, and have several returning veterans this time around: Niklas Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Pavel Datsyuk, Kris Draper, Thomas Holmstrom, Kirk Maltby and goalie Dominik Hasek.