MIGHTY DUCK NOTEBOOK / ELLIOTT TEAFORD : Kings’ Hrudey Has Hands Full Every Night

The Mighty Ducks fired shot after shot at King goaltender Kelly Hrudey, a.k.a. the human backstop, and he hardly flinched Friday.

Forty-nine shots, a Duck record, flew at him and he stopped all but three. If it weren’t such a nightly occurrence, it might rank as an amazing game for Hrudey.

But 49 shots, even by the expansion Ducks, is pretty much business as usual.

“The more rubber he sees the better he plays,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said after the Kings had defeated the Ducks, 5-3, at Anaheim Arena.

Sean Hill and Bob Corkum each had seven shots on goal. Peter Douris had six and Shaun Van Allen five.

The central question after the game was whether all those shots added up to good scoring chances, or simply routine saves.

“We put a lot of shots on Hrudey, but I don’t think they all tested him,” Tim Sweeney said.

Said Troy Loney: “It (49 shots) really doesn’t mean anything when we don’t win the game.”

When it was over, Hrudey seemed unfazed. He’s apparently grown accustomed to such nightly bombardments. After all, he’s faced more shots this season than any NHL goaltenders except Edmonton’s Bill Ranford and St. Louis’ Curtis Joseph--an average of 35 shots per game.

“They are one of the teams you really have to be prepared to play against,” Hrudey said. “Playing the Ducks is tough right now. They make the job for goalies extremely difficult.”

Asked if he plays better when he faces more shots, Hrudey shrugged.

“I don’t care how many shots I face,” he said. “When I play well I’m indifferent. When I don’t play well I’m indifferent.”

Besides, it’s not like he has any control over the sieve-like King defense.

On the other hand, few teams can match the Kings’ offensive firepower and Hrudey said he got a huge confidence boost when Jari Kurri scored a short-handed goal 57 seconds into the second period. Kurri’s goal gave the Kings the lead for good at 3-2.

The Ducks scored once more, but the Kings countered with two goals. Most games, that seems to be their best game plan: score more than the other guys and leave the rest to Hrudey.

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Almost lost in Wayne Gretzky’s vintage two-goal, three-assist performance were two goals and one assist from Kurri.

Hrudey noticed, though.

“I can see why he’s probably the greatest two-way player ever to play the game,” Hrudey said.

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Wilson blamed the defense for allowing Gretzky and Kurri so much open ice.

“Their three-on-ones and two-on-ones were due to our poor play,” Wilson said. “They weren’t necessarily great plays by them.”

It didn’t help the Ducks’ cause that they were swept up in the Kings’ wide-open style. Sometimes, they fared well, but so many other times faster King skaters whipped the slower Ducks down the ice.

“It’s easy to get caught up in it,” Wilson said. “We learned a lesson and we’ll profit from it in the future.”

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Sweeney received 12 stitches to close a gash near his mouth. When a camera crew asked which side he would rather be filmed from, he said, “Right now, I don’t have a good side.”

Moments later, he said Friday’s game was as important as any the Ducks have played this season.

“We were up for this game,” Sweeney said. “But against a team like L.A. you can’t make mistakes. We were looking at this game as a must-win for us.”

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Todd Ewen on Gretzky: “He had a great game. He played spectacularly. We had as much of a chance to win as anybody, even with Wayne Gretzky making all those great plays.”