Ducks Face Facts in a 5-2 Loss

All questions about the Mighty Ducks could be read in the faces of their leadership Friday night.

Coach Mike Babcock’s look of bewilderment.

Team captain Steve Rucchin’s grimace.

Goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s red face.

Pictures painted in a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. The Ducks let a third-period lead slip away, handing the Sabres opportunity on top of opportunity.

By the time the Ducks trudged to the dressing room, with the scattered boos of the announced 14,186 at the Arrowhead Pond following them off, there was a sense of what-the-heck-happened. The answer was clearly defined in the players-only meeting following the game.

“It’s a reoccurring theme,” Rucchin said. “We have spurts of hard work and then lapses where we don’t seem to want to work and that is hurting us. Coach Babcock can tell us what to do until he is blue in the face. It’s time that we have to hold everyone in here accountable. It’s inexcusable. We just can’t expect to go out there and skate and score. It’s not going to happen.”

These themes all came out in the 10-minute team meeting.

“That they’re having a team meeting says something,” Babcock said. “But that energy is too late. That should have been used in preparation.”

Instead, the Ducks could only look back in anger. They took a 2-1 lead into the third period, then watched -- sometimes literally -- as the Sabres ran them over.

This wasn’t the Buffalo Sabre team that made the Stanley Cup finals in 1999. Of course, this hardly resembled the Duck team that made the Cup finals just last spring.

“Going that deep into the playoffs, to the bitter end, takes it toll,” Buffalo Coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think it has taken a toll on their goaltender. But you wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Giguere, who made 32 saves, might have swapped it for a little defensive responsibility Friday.

Third-period goals by Dmitri Kalinin, Taylor Pyatt, Adam Mair and Jean-Pierre Dumont steamrolled the Ducks, who certainly aided and abetted in all four goals

Kalinin’s power-play goal tied the score 3 minutes 41 seconds into the third period. It was a charity event for the Ducks after that.

Pyatt then outworked any Duck in his vicinity, getting two cracks at the puck on the edge of the crease. The Ducks’ Sergei Fedorov tried to clear the puck but only managed to hit it off Pyatt’s stick and into the net for 8:04 into the period.

Mair then salted the wound, banging in a rebound after the puck dribbled past Duck defenseman Todd Simpson.

To underscore that point, Jean-Pierre Dumont did a dipsy-doodle around Duck center Andy McDonald to break free with the puck then broke in Giguere, scoring the Sabres’ fourth goal of the period.

Even the Sabres’ first goal, scored by Pyatt, followed a Sandis Ozolinsh turnover in the first period.

“It’s frustrating that we can’t put together a 60-minute game,” Giguere said. “This is about us and how we are going to play. We got to do it, no one else can. Every guy on this team has to make a decision about tomorrow right now.”

The loss spoiled Joffrey Lupul’s first NHL goal. He tied the score 2:32 into the second period. Petr Sykora gave them the lead late in the period, banking a shot off Sabre defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick.

That was the high-water mark for the Ducks. The floodgates then opened in the third period.