For Ducks, a win wasn’t in the stars

The NHL will announce the starters for its All-Star game this morning and, barring a late assault on the ballot box, three Ducks are expected to make the Western Conference lineup.

Which raises a question: How can a team that sits atop the conference in All-Stars be stuck in the middle of the pack in points?

The Ducks did little to answer that question Friday when they sent their likely All-Stars -- goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, forward Ryan Getzlaf and one from the blue-line pair of Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger -- out to face the Philadelphia Flyers. Because though they generally outplayed, outhustled and outfought the Flyers, they didn’t outscore them, losing 5-4 in a shootout before a record Honda Center crowd announced at 17,597.

But that’s not the only reason this loss may have stung a little more than the rest. Playing against the second-best power play in the league, the Ducks killed off 10 minutes of penalties in the third period alone, thanks in part to some sensational stops by Giguere.

And he made another sparkling save a minute into overtime.

But he couldn’t stop Mike Richards’ wrister in the shootout, and when all three Anaheim shooters failed to find the net, the exhausted Ducks were left with only one point for their troubles.

Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle, however, chose to focus on the positives.

“This was the most intense game that we’ve played in a while,” he said. “From our side, we’re taking a positive spin on it because we worked hard.

“But we lost a point. We didn’t lose the hockey game. If we can bottle this intensity, this emotion, this energy and continue to play at this level, then we’ll make some great strides.”

But no matter how you spin it, the free-falling Ducks, losers of five of their last six, are now tied with Phoenix for sixth place in the 15-team conference heading into Sunday’s showdown with the Coyotes in Anaheim.

“At this time of the year you can really separate yourself from the pack. Or get separated from the pack,” veteran center Todd Marchant said.

For the Ducks the problem isn’t necessarily the All-Stars as much as the players around them -- or, in the case of the last 10 days, the players not around them.

The Ducks have been without franchise scoring leader Teemu Selanne for six games and Thursday they lost defenseman Kent Huskins to a broken bone in his foot, which left them so short-handed they called up 21-year-old Brendan Mikkelson to make his NHL debut -- and Mikkelson wound up skating 21 shifts.

But if the once-mighty Ducks appear to be losing much of their roster, they haven’t lost their fight. In fact, they showed plenty of it early against the Flyers with George Parros and Steve Montador earning major penalties only eight seconds apart late in the first period.

That sparked their teammates, who got on the scoreboard 34 seconds before the first intermission on a nifty goal by Corey Perry, his 10th, then took the lead 32 seconds into the second period on a wrist shot by Rob Niedermayer.

Scott Niedermayer got an assist on the second goal, the 500th of his career. And when Andrew Ebbett scored his first NHL goal on a power play 5:34 later, it was 3-1 Ducks.

Which is when things got a little weird.

First the Flyers got goals from Josh Gratton and Braydon Coburn to tie it up. Sixty-five seconds later Getzlaf gave the Ducks the lead again -- only to have his teammates hand it back 14 seconds after that when the Flyers’ Mike Knuble tied the score for the third time.

Exhausted, the two teams then played through a sloppy third period in which they combined for more penalties (14) than shots on goal (13).

“As a team I think we’re looking for our identity,” Giguere said. “We don’t know exactly what it is that we do. And we’re looking for it right now.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com