Another First for Ducks : Hockey: Hebert makes 22 saves against Canucks to record team’s initial shutout at home, 3-0.

Sean Hill toyed with the puck behind the Mighty Ducks’ net as the final seconds wound down, then skated around to present it to goaltender Guy Hebert with a hug.

Hebert had just shut out the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0, in front of a sellout crowd of 17,174 at Anaheim Arena on Friday for his second shutout of the season and the third of his career.

It was also the Ducks’ first shutout at home.

This was one game in which there weren’t enough pucks to go around. Hebert had to make only 22 saves, and spent much of the third period watching the action from afar as the Ducks played conservative offense and clogged up the neutral zone at every opportunity.

“It’s my favorite spot to be in, when the puck’s in the other zone,” Hebert said. “This was great for our fans. We’d had a tough time at home and hadn’t had the results we wanted. But tonight everyone was blocking shots and the forwards were coming back.”

It was a team effort--”a full 60 minutes,” Coach Ron Wilson said--and it moved the Ducks into sole possession of third place in the Pacific Division and the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.

They also broke a three-game winning streak by the Canucks, who are second in the division.

“This was just a good, old-fashioned whupping,” Vancouver Coach Pat Quinn said. “They beat us to the puck all night. I don’t care if on paper we have more talent, you’re not going to win if the other team wants it more and plays harder.”

Hebert, who is 9-5-2 in his last 16 decisions, had to make 38 saves Dec. 15 against Toronto to record the first shutout in Duck history. This time, it was much easier.

“I think he had a couple of point-blank saves,” teammate Terry Yake said. “We expect that from our goalies. For the most part, I think it was one of his easier shutouts, but you’d have to ask him. It’s a big deal for all of us, not just Guy.”

The Ducks led, 2-0, after the first period. They scored a shorthanded goal at 4:32 when Shaun Van Allen took a pass from Joe Sacco off the boards and carried the puck in to the left circle for a slap shot. His shot seemed to glance off goalie Kay Whitmore’s left pad, but the puck still found its way into the net.

Anatoli Semenov, who returned recently from a seven-week layoff with a dislocated left elbow and had sat out the last two games because of lingering soreness, scored the Ducks’ second goal on a perfect pass from Tim Sweeney at 15:26.

Sweeney held the puck in the right circle and faked a shot as Semenov cut to the net, then passed across the slot to Semenov, who scored from just in front of the left post.

Trailing by two goals, the Canucks tried to counter with aggressive forechecking. With the Ducks trying to clog the neutral zone, the result was mostly a game that seemed to go nowhere, and a scoreless second period.

The two-goal lead was too tenuous for the Ducks to relax until late in the third, when Bob Corkum’s goal at 16:04 made it 3-0. The goal, assisted by Garry Valk and Sean Hill, was Corkum’s team-leading 18th.

Duck Notes

Defenseman Bill Houlder, who is the team’s third-leading scorer but is a minus-19, was scratched for the first time this season. The decision was probably because of Houlder’s most recent blunder, when his bad pass in the defensive zone led to the tiebreaking goal in a loss to Calgary on Wednesday. . . . Sunday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks at Anaheim Arena is a rare afternoon game, with a 1 p.m. start. . . . The crowd of 17,174 was the 11th consecutive sellout at Anaheim Arena, and club President Tony Tavares said the Ducks might sell out all their remaining home dates this season.