Sami Pahlsson's goal was just his third of the playoffs, but his second game-winner and the 5th by his line in the 14 Ducks' playoff wins. AP

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Anaheim Checking Line 2, Ottawa Scoring Line 0.

In the latest example of how difficult it is for a one-line team to win the Stanley Cup, the Anaheim Ducks' checking line wrapped up Jason Spezza's scoring line for the second straight game, giving the Ottawa Senators their second consecutive loss for the first time in 63 games.

Of course, those other five-plus months of games are ancient history. No Floridas or Bostons now for Ottawa. The Senators, who roared through three rounds, skated better than they did in the opener, pushed back more when the Ducks forecheckers pounded them, but they have yet to demonstrate the conviction necessary against physically dominant Anaheim, whose pair of one-goal wins does not begin to express how tilted the ice has seemed in its favor.

The playoffs are usually more layered in their complexity, more nuanced, but Anaheim vs. Ottawa has neatly spun on the axis of a single matchup: the Ducks' checkers against the line of Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson. (Spare me the arguments about Ottawa's depth: those three players have scored 23 of the Senators' 50 playoff goals.)

Through two games, the Anaheim shutdown line has two goals and is a plus-6 while Spezza's line has no goals, is a minus-6 and has spent about as much time at even-strength in the offensive zone as Britney Spears spends in a library. The checkers were supposed to hold Ottawa's Big Three to a standstill, not turn them into spectators as the red light keeps going on. In Game 1, a Saskatchewan farm boy named Travis Moen, who is playing hooky from spraying crops to play for the most esteemed piece of hockey hardware, scored the winning goal with about three minutes left while going head-to-head with Ottawa's big boys. On Wednesday night, Moen's center, Samuel Pahlsson, scored with 5:44 remaining to give the Ducks a 1-0 victory, spoiling a nearly immaculate performance by goalie Ray Emery.

"Making them work inside the puck and making them play defense," Anaheim defenseman Chris Pronger said. "That's the best way to counteract offensive players."

"Their defensemen and their checkers have been the stars of the series," said Ottawa coach Bryan Murray, whose top three players were without a point for just the second time in 17 playoff games.

The scoring woes for the Senators, who periodically spotted Alfredsson on Mike Fisher's right flank but generally kept their top three offensive players together against Pahlsson, Moen, Rob Niedermayer, Pronger and defenseman Scott Niedermayer, were compounded by the lackadaisical defensive play on the winning goal. In an effort to create at least a modicum of offense -- and since sparkling during an extended 5-on-3 power play in the first period, Ducks goalie Jean-Sébastien Giguère could have turned in his skates for a pair of slippers -- Heatley made a poor chip just inside the offensive blue line. Pahlsson snapped it up and broke down the right side, a play which, as it progressed through the neutral zone, appeared to be relatively harmless. Alfredsson seemed to have a chance to check Pahlsson just as he gained the Ottawa blue line but couldn't poke the puck away from him, in effect turning the rushing center over to defenseman Joe Corvo. Pahlsson then cut inside, twirling Corvo a full 180 degrees so the defenseman actually faced the net. He then used Corvo as a screen, firing the puck from the right faceoff circle through Corvo's legs and past Emery, just inside the far post.

Pahlsson also won 10 of 12 faceoffs, delivered four hits, blocked a shot and probably recorded a CD with Snoop Dog, who was in the stands decked out in a Ducks jersey, during the second intermission.

"In the playoffs, everybody steps up the defensive aspect of the game at least 20 to 25 percent," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "It's nice to see these three players are getting rewarded for all the hard work. The one thing about those guys, they play the tough minutes and a lot of time the spotlight has not been directed towards them. Right now they're earning that."

Despite general manager Brian Burke's musings that the preternaturally tough Pahlsson must have some Albertan in him, Pahlsson went to high school in perhaps the greatest hockey city -- per capita, at least -- in the world. The city of Ornskoldsvik, a seaport of about 60,000 halfway between Stockholm and the Arctic Circle on the Gulf of Bothnia, has produced Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Daniel and Henrik Sedin and lesser luminaries currently in the NHL. When Boston nabbed him from Colorado in the trade for Hall of Famer Raymond Bourque prior to the deadline in 2000, Pahlsson figured to be a second-line center, a steady point producer. It never quite worked out that way. He still plays more of a two-way game with the Swedish national team, but Carlyle prefers him in a shutdown role. The goal was just Pahlsson's third of the playoffs, but his second game-winner and the fifth by his line in the 14 Anaheim playoff victories.

Anaheim is unbeaten in five home games, largely because Carlyle has been able to get Pahlsson's line -- the only trio he has not fiddled with since the start of the regular season -- against various No. 1 lines. With the series shifting to Ottawa for Game 3 Saturday, the matchups become more problematic for Carlyle, who will no longer have the last change. But if the Anaheim bench is alert, the Ducks should be changing often on the fly, again putting Murray in a position where he has to find a way to counter.

The Big Three on a match has been bad news for Ottawa.