Mighty Ducks 5, Blue Jackets 0

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) As soon as they made the playoffs, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks started scoring.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 29 saves, and Rob Niedermayer scored two goals as the Anaheim Mighty Ducks defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-0 Monday night.

The Ducks broke open a one-goal game by scoring three times after Anaheim learned it clinched its first postseason berth since 1999. Phoenix's 2-0 loss at Calgary secured Anaheim's position in the Western Conference playoffs.

Anaheim, in its 10th season, moved into sixth place with the victory.

Giguere earned his eighth shutout this season, moving him into a tie for the NHL lead.

``I think we had the better chances, Giguere was just too good tonight,'' Columbus coach Doug MacLean said.

Playing for first-year coach Mike Babcock, the Ducks have already set a franchise record for wins and points. Their previous best was 85 points and 36 wins set during the 1996-97 season.

Two seasons ago, Anaheim had the worst record in the West, finishing in 15th place behind expansion teams Columbus and Minnesota. The Ducks were in 13th place last season.

``At the start of the season, when I saw the type of team we were going to have, I was real excited about it,'' Anaheim captain Paul Kariya said. ``We proved a lot of people wrong.''

Kariya helped the Ducks get ahead of Columbus early on Monday.

He sent a quick pass to Mike Leclerc in the slot and Leclerc snapped in his ninth goal of the season for a 1-0 lead just 22 seconds after the opening faceoff.

``The last four or five games we never really came out strong, so tonight it was important for us to have a good first period,'' said Giguere, who made eight saves to put Anaheim into position to take further control in the second.

Adam Oates drew a faceoff in the Columbus zone back to Petr Sykora, who fired a 45-foot shot past goalie Marc Denis four seconds into an Anaheim power play. That made it 2-0 at 7:09 of the second.

The assist by Oates moved him past Jari Kurri into 15th place on the NHL career points list with 1,399.

With 12:55 gone in the second period, Niedermayer scored his first goal for Anaheim after being acquired from Calgary on March 11. Steve Thomas, who was also acquired at the trading deadline from Chicago, added his fifth goal in his eighth game with the Ducks to complete the second-period scoring outburst.

``Jiggy gave us a chance in the first, after that we got our game going,'' said Niedermayer, who added a power-play goal in the third.< ^Notes:@ Anaheim rookie D Kurt Sauer left the game and didn't return following a second-period fight with David Ling. ... The Blue Jackets were 6-2 against Anaheim in their first two seasons, but 0-4 this season. ... The Blue Jackets have lost eight in a row on the road, a team record for consecutive regulation road losses. ... If Denis plays all remaining seven games he'll tie Grant Fuhr's record for most games played in a season by a goalie. Fuhr played 79 games for St. Louis in the 1996-97 season.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)