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Ducks’ Wisniewski is taking a shot for (and at) the playoffs

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SAN JOSE -- Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski exemplifies why hockey players are the toughest athletes in professional sports.

Although most baseball players would retire to the disabled list if they broke a fingernail, Wisniewski voluntarily subjected himself to searing pain twice Thursday by blocking two shots while the Ducks were at a five-on-three disadvantage against the Vancouver Canucks.

His shin pads probably looked like the front end of a car after a fender-bender, but with the stoicism typical of his peers, Wisniewski thought little of it.

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‘One hit me on the top of the kneecap so it kind of hurt a little bit,’ Wisniewski said today, recalling his block of a slap shot from Canucks defenseman Sami Salo. ‘He can shoot the puck pretty hard. You just kind of have to take one for the team. You know what you’ve got to do during a five-on-three, especially with big points that we needed to make the playoffs, so you’ve just got to give your body up.’

His efforts were appreciated by Coach Randy Carlyle, himself a former NHL defenseman.

‘You look back at turning points in the game and things that do motivate you as a team,’ Carlyle said during the Ducks’ morning skate at HP Pavilion before their game against the league-leading Sharks.

‘It’s always a huge boost when you can kill that five-on-three off because it’s expected that you’re supposed to score when you’re enjoying that man advantage.’

Those plays by Wisniewski, who was acquired by the Ducks from Chicago with Petri Kontiola for Samuel Pahlsson, Logan Stephenson and a draft pick in one of their deadline-day deals, were key factors in their 6-5 shootout victory over the Canucks. Wisniewski has played a key role in helping them win the first two games of this trip: At Edmonton he had a team-leading five hits and an assist on Rob Niedermayer’s game-winner in the Ducks’ 5-3 victory, and at Vancouver he had those five blocked shots and shared the team lead with two hits.

Blocking shots is a science, and not a precise one. Wisniewski said a blocked shot during a junior game left him with a hairline fracture in his foot -- but he simply taped it up and played on it.

‘You’ve almost got to give them a lane and then take it away, almost how like goalies do it,’ he said. ‘You want to make a shooter think he can get the puck through and then you almost guess and kind of know where he’s going to shoot and you take it away.

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‘And get ready for some pain sometimes.’

That’s not as bad as the pain of missing the playoffs. Though the Ducks have a tough weekend -- tonight’s game starts a home-and-home with the Sharks -- they got a break Friday when Nashville lost to Chicago. The Ducks also would win the tiebreaker if they and Nashville finish with identical records.

‘You scoreboard watch, obviously, with the position we’re in,’ Carlyle said. ‘You’re not going to not watch what other teams are doing.

‘Our focus is going to continue to control the things that we can control: our effort, our structure, our commitment to playing the game to get points. That’s not going to change with our group. We’re playing one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team in the league here, and we have to have commitment from everybody in our group to play the best game they played in the year.’

More on the Ducks later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: James Wisniewski handles the puck in a game against the Phoenix Coyotes on March 22. Credit: Branimir Kvartuc / Associated Press

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