Costly Errors Spoil Ducks’ ‘Homecoming’ : Hockey: New center Lebeau, however, shows flashes of brilliance during 4-2 loss to Sabres.

On a night that marked a homecoming for a handful of Mighty Ducks and a debut for center Stephan Lebeau, some of the Ducks left Memorial Auditorium with an extra tinge of disappointment Wednesday after a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

Coach Ron Wilson grew up skating at the “Aud” as the old arena is known, jumping on the ice after his father’s minor league teammates had finished practicing. Bob Corkum, the Ducks’ leading scorer, used to play for the Sabres, as did defensemen Bill Houlder, Don McSween and Mark Ferner.

“It was a game I wanted to win. It would have been nice,” said McSween, who made several goal-saving defensive plays on a night when the defense made some crucial errors. He also was credited with the Ducks’ second goal when his shot went in off the skate of Sabre defenseman Doug Bodger with the Ducks trailing, 4-1, in the third period.

Lebeau, playing his first game since arriving in the trade that sent goalie Ron Tugnutt to Montreal Sunday, wasn’t on the ice for either Duck goal, but showed signs that he is going to create scoring opportunities--and be in the right places defensively as well.

“Definitely, he’s got good hands and good wheels,” said Corkum, who played with LeBeau on the power play. “He created some chances around the net.”

Coach Ron Wilson was satisfied with Lebeau’s game, but has cautioned that one player can’t cure all the Ducks’ offensive shortcomings, and that it will take awhile for Lebeau to mesh on the ice.

“It was an adjustment for me,” said Lebeau, who was playing only his third game since returning from a severely sprained right ankle. “I didn’t play a lot over the last six weeks. I felt better as the game went on. I’m confident my best is ahead.

“At the first practice I was nervous, today I was nervous. I think it’s the normal thing you have to go through.”

The Sabres played a hard-checking, physical game and capitalized on defensive coverage errors by the Ducks. Guy Hebert, now the Ducks’ No. 1 goalie, allowed four goals for the second consecutive game even though he has allowed under three a game most of the season.

“They made a couple of nice plays on our defensive mistakes and that was the difference,” Wilson said. “Add into that that Guy didn’t make the big save that can get you out of it, not that the goals were his fault. He only let in one bad goal.”

Richard Smehlik had a dominating game for the Sabres, assisting on three goals. Randy Wood, Derek Plante, Dale Hawerchuk and Petr Svooboda scored.

The Ducks’ Terry Yake ended Buffalo goalie Grant Fuhr’s shutout bid at 8:14 of the second, when he scored his 20th goal of the season.