Mighty Ducks Beat the Oilers, Look to Sharks : Hockey: With Anaheim’s 4-1 victory, the race for final playoff spot in the Western Conference tightens.

Has it really gotten to this point, that the Mighty Ducks can have must-win games?

That’s pretty much what Friday night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers was--the sort the Ducks have to win if they’re serious about making a run at the playoffs in their first season.

They needed to win and they did, 4-1, before a 17th consecutive sellout crowd of 17,174 at Anaheim Arena.

Guy Hebert made 24 saves, four Ducks scored goals and defenseman David Williams tied his career high with three points on a goal and two assists.

“This is a big win,” said Joe Sacco, who scored his seventh goal in the last nine games and 14th of the season. “It’s huge. It gives us some momentum going into the San Jose game, and we haven’t played very well against them.”

Edmonton, the worst team in the Pacific Division, had lost to San Jose the night before, and the Sharks--who have the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot--extended their lead over the Ducks and Kings to five points, at least for a day.

A loss to Edmonton would have been demoralizing for the Ducks--and would have sent them into Sunday’s crucial game at San Jose needing to win to avoid falling seven points back in the scramble for that playoff spot.

Instead, they have an opportunity to cut San Jose’s lead to one point.

Coach Ron Wilson is looking at the San Jose game as another that his team must win. It is their final meeting of the season with the team they are chasing--and the Ducks are 0-5 against the Sharks.

Imagine, Wilson says, where the Ducks would be if they’d only played .500 against the Sharks. Or calculate it--they’d be seven points ahead.

“We definitely owe them a few games,” said Hebert, who was sharp in allowing fewer than three goals for the first time since Ron Tugnutt was traded. “Being in the playoff hunt is extremely exciting. It’s better than wasting the last 20 games of the year.”

The game against Edmonton was a penalty-filled one that included rare overlapping five-minute major penalties against the Ducks. That meant a two-man advantage for the Oilers for what seemed an eternal 3:35. The Ducks’ spirited effort helped them kill a 5-on-3 short-handed situation, and they came within 10 seconds of thwarting the entire second major before Fredrik Olausson’s goal gave the Oilers’ a 1-0 lead at 16:13 of the first.

That power play came after Stu Grimson was given a charging major for barreling into Edmonton goalie Bill Ranford outside the crease, and then Don McSween got a high-sticking major and automatic game misconduct.

The Ducks nearly killed it off, with the help of defensemen Mark Ferner and Bobby Dollas, but Edmonton broke through just before the last penalty expired.

Dire as the situation seemed, the Ducks escaped it by allowing only one goal, and Coach Ron Wilson thought this was the turning point.

Dollas tied the score shortly later, with a slap shot from the right point. Tim Sweeney scored the go-ahead goal from close range at 5:39 of the second after Terry Yake’s second-effort pass came to him across the crease as Yake was being pushed away from the play.

“It was a strange game, there wasn’t much flow,” Wilson said. “I think we were a little nervous. We’re starting to realize the importance of every game right now.”

Duck Notes

The highly charged game spilled over after the final horn, as the teams tussled in front of the Edmonton goal. Stu Grimson was assessed a cross-checking minor and a 10-minute game misconduct. Todd Ewen was given a roughing minor, as was Edmonton’s Dave Manson. “Things got pretty ugly at the end of the game,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “They did some really mean things that were cheap. Luckily no one was hurt.”

* THE TASK AT HAND

Joe Sacco’s goal is to make the Mighty Ducks a playoff contender. C11