Ducks Win the Hard Way : Hockey: After allowing the Whalers a three-goal lead early, Anaheim comes storming back to win at home, 6-3.

Now those purple road jerseys can stay packed until the Mighty Ducks leave town.

The Ducks didn’t resort to any gimmicks before their latest attempt to win a home game. Instead, they broke their exasperating five-game Anaheim Arena losing streak with a lot of resolve and a little elbow grease.

No one could accuse them of doing it the easy way, as they fell behind by three goals before taking a 6-3 victory over the Hartford Whalers Friday in front of 17,174, their fifth consecutive sellout crowd.

“This is a big monkey off our back. We were beginning to think we were never going to win at home again,” said left wing Tim Sweeney, who scored two goals, as did center Patrik Carnback.

It looked like more of the same lethargic play at home when the Ducks dug a 3-0 hole, but they came alive in the second period. With four goals in a 6-minute 4-second outburst, they took a 4-3 lead.

It was the first time they have overcome a three-goal deficit to win.

“I think tonight we really took our road game home,” Sweeney said. “(Coach Ron Wilson) put on the board tonight, ‘Less is more,’ and that’s really our road game. We don’t have to try to everything fancy.”

Instead, they took advantage of Hartford mistakes, such as defensemen getting caught up ice, to create a passel of odd-man rushes.

Carnback, who had an assist to go with his sixth and seventh goals of the season, started the game centering the tough-guy line with Stu Grimson and Todd Ewen on the wings.

But a few shifts into the game, Wilson put him with wingers Sweeney and ex-Whaler Terry Yake. The move paid off big, with the line contributing four goals.

“Just a gut feeling,” Wilson said. “Patrik deserved to be playing there. He’s been playing real well. He just seemed hungry enough to be there--and he was.”

Carnback got the rally started when he shoved across the second rebound at 10:47 after Yake took a swipe at the rebound of defenseman Don McSween’s shot. Sweeney had created the opportunity when he took the puck from defenseman James Patrick in the neutral zone.

A couple of minutes later, with the Ducks trying to kill Shaun Van Allen’s hooking penalty, Bob Corkum and Garry Valk jumped out front on a 2-on-1. Corkum kept the puck and beat goalie Jeff Reese for a shorthanded goal, cutting the lead to 3-2.

By then, the Ducks were alive again, and Sweeney scored the tying goal from low in the right circle off a pass from Carnback at 14:46.

Carnback scored the go-ahead goal a little more than two minutes later, when defenseman David Williams’ perfect pass up the middle sent him out on a breakaway. Carnback outwaited Reese, switching from his forehand to his backhand and then back to his forehand to beat him easily at 16:51.

The odd-man rushes kept piling up, and the Ducks took a 5-3 lead at 3:23 of the third when McSween, who signed with the Ducks this week, dropped the puck back to Sweeney on another 2-on-1.

Valk’s empty-net goal with 34 seconds left after Reese was pulled for an extra attacker started the victory celebration--the Ducks’ first at Anaheim Arena since they beat St. Louis on Dec. 12.

The quietest star of the game was Hebert, who was coming off his worst performance of the season in the loss to San Jose on Wednesday and allowed three quick goals against the Whalers. But Hebert buckled down and made 31 saves, shutting out the Whalers for the final 36 minutes.

The Ducks’ resolve to put up stiffer opposition at home was punctured just 29 seconds into the game, when defenseman Zarley Zalapski swept unchecked to pick up a rebound and put it in the net. Hebert had gloved Jim Storm’s shot, but it fell loose, and his defense did nothing to sweep it out of the way or hold off Zalapski.

By early in the second period, the Ducks trailed, 3-0, after goals by Michael Nylander and Brian Propp.

“I give the Ducks all the credit in the world. They deserved to win this game,” said Hartford Coach Pierre McGuire. “I couldn’t believe the way they came back.”