Anaheim, Calif. ? When a bouncing puck found Travis Moen in the slot, he was every bit as dangerous as Teemu Selanne, instead of the checker he’s paid to be.

Moen wasted no time and snapped a shot past Ray Emery with 2:51 left, giving the Ducks a 3-2 victory over the Senators in the Stanley Cup finals opener Monday night. Moen’s fifth of the playoffs came after Ryan Getzlaf’s tying goal 11:25 earlier erased the 2-1 lead Ottawa carried into the third period.

Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere fishes the puck out of the net after a goal by Ottawa's Mike Comrie. The Ducks rallied for a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals Monday in Anaheim, Calif.

Rob Niedermayer kept the play alive with a sweeping move behind the net, then nudged the puck in his checking linemate’s direction.

“It was kind of bouncing and I got lucky,” Moen said. “I caught it on the way down, got a lucky shot and it went in. It was huge.

“I think every kid dreams of scoring a goal to win a game in the Stanley Cup final.”

The 36-year-old Selanne, playing in the finals for the first time in his 14-year career, was goalless. He led the Ducks this season with 48 goals and 94 points.

In the first matchup of the teams this season, Moen, along with Niedermayer and Samuel Pahlsson, held Ottawa’s top line of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley to two assists and handed the Senators their first series-opening loss in these playoffs.

Mike Fisher staked Ottawa to a 1-0 lead in the first period with a power-play goal on the Senators’ first shot, and defenseman Wade Redden also scored on the man advantage in the second.

Andy McDonald netted a goal in the first for the Ducks, who will look to take a 2-0 lead at home on Wednesday night.

The Senators appeared ready to win their first Stanley Cup finals game since the franchise was reborn in 1992, but the Ducks fought back and stole it away. Ottawa lost only one game in each of its other three playoff series and now faces its first deficit.

“I thought we came out pretty good the first 10 minutes,” Heatley said. “After a layoff, you can’t duplicate game situations. I don’t think we’re using it as an excuse, I just don’t think we played up to our capabilities.”

Ottawa went without a shot from the 5:36 mark of the first until the end of the period and finished with three.

“It’s not so much what they did, it’s what we didn’t do as a line,” Spezza said. “We didn’t have as much jump.”

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 18 saves overall to improve to 10-3 in the playoffs. Getzlaf’s goal put the Ducks in a great position: Anaheim is 13-0 in the playoffs when scoring at least twice.

Then Moen put them right where they want to be – ahead in the finals.

As thrilled as the sellout crowd was in the arena, it was nowhere near the excitement back in Saskatchewan, where his family and friends camped out in front of the TV to see him play.

“I know my mom had 15, 20 people over watching,” he said.

Even after grabbing an early lead, Ottawa goalie Ray Emery and the rest of the Senators showed a bit of rust in the first period following an eight-day layoff.

After leaving juicy rebounds and looking a bit unsteady in his crease, Emery bounced back in the second period, stopping all 10 Anaheim shots, including one he grabbed out of the air as it threatened to bound past him.