Ducks deck Senators on roadfor commanding 3-1 series lead

~ Anaheim won 3-2 despite playing without its top defenseman.

By IRA PODELL

The Associated Press

OTTAWA -- Andy McDonald bailed out Chris Pronger and set up Southern California for a playoff party like never before.

The Anaheim Ducks are within a win of their first Stanley Cup championship.

McDonald scored two goals in the second period, then shook free of hard-hitting Chris Neil and assisted on Dustin Penner's winner in the third, giving Anaheim a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.

The Ducks will carry a 3-1 series advantage back home to Anaheim, where they are 7-0 in clinching games, including 3-0 this year. But this one is different, and it all became possible because of the Ducks' first road win in the finals in six chances over two series.

Anaheim is 5-0 in the finals on home ice and can secure Southern California's first Stanley Cup title as early as Wednesday night.

Anaheim got it done despite a miserable first period in which it was outshot 13-2 without Pronger, a Norris Trophy finalist who served a one-game suspension for an elbow to the head of Ottawa's Dean McAmmond in Game 3 on Saturday.

Ducks general manager Brian Burke was incensed Sunday that Pronger was suspended while Neil wasn't, claiming the only difference was McAmmond was injured and McDonald wasn't when Neil charged and landed a high, hard hit in Game 3.

This time, Neil missed the Ducks forward and instead crashed himself into the boards. That was enough to allow McDonald to get the puck up ice to Teemu Selanne.

Skating alongside Penner, with only Senators defenseman Anton Volchenkov back, Selanne moved the puck across to Penner for a shot that beat Ray Emery 4:07 into the third to snap a 2-2 tie.

Dany Heatley had his best game of the finals, scoring his first goal of the series to get Ottawa even 2-2 with 2 minutes left in the second period. Heatley struggled along with linemates Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, who had been shut down through three games.

Alfredsson netted his second of the series with less than a second left in the first period to stake Ottawa to a 1-0 lead.

Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 21 shots.