Ducks’ Offense Healthy in Rout : Hockey: Wilson concerned about defense despite 5-1 victory over cure-all Ottawa.

The Ottawa Senators will cure whatever ails you.

At least until the cure itself starts making you sick.

The Mighty Ducks--who were shut out three times in a row last week--were reintroduced to expansion’s worst example on Sunday afternoon, and breezed to a 5-1 victory before 17,174 at Anaheim Arena.

They led, 3-0, before the first 20 minutes were over, and were ahead, 5-0, before the Senators spoiled goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov’s bid for a shutout in his first NHL victory. Dennis Vial’s goal at 8:43 of the third period was the only one of 28 shots Shtalenkov didn’t stop.

But Duck Coach Ron Wilson had hardly finished sighing with relief that the Ducks have broken out of their offensive doldrums before he started worrying that their defense was regressing against the NHL’s worst team.

“You get a 2-0, 3-0, lead halfway through the first period and it’s hard to get any team to play hard and focus for 60 minutes,” Wilson said. “I’m not trying to knock the Ottawa Senators, but they’ve had a long season and a lot of teams at this point would take them lightly.

“I was disappointed with a lot of our effort defensively, but on the other hand I sort of expect it. I’ve been with real good teams like Vancouver in the past when they’re playing one of the uh, newer teams. You get an early lead and you try to play easy. . . . I was more concerned halfway through the game that I made sure we didn’t get into bad habits and sort of cakewalk our way into the L.A. game.”

It is strange but true that a first-year team can look on the second-year Senators with sympathy. The Ducks have won 26 games--16 more than the Senators’ 10 this season. Ottawa has won only once in the last 21 games.

“It’s got to be frustrating. They seem to want to play the season out,” said Duck defenseman Mark Ferner, who was briefly a Senator last year but was actually deemed not good enough--only to find a role with the Ducks.

The game against the Kings on Wednesday at Anaheim Arena looms large. The Ducks are six points behind eighth-place San Jose in the Western Conference standings. The Kings are nine back--and they get a chance to cure themselves first against Ottawa on Tuesday.

Shtalenkov, who became Guy Hebert’s backup after Ron Tugnutt was traded to Montreal, probably will oppose the Kings--especially since Hebert hasn’t beaten them in four tries.

“Mikhail did a great job,” Wilson said. “To a lot of people he might not have been the difference but to me he was. . . . At the moment, if Mikhail’s going to be as hot and solid as he is, we’ll go with him for a while. . . . I think you’ll probably see Mikhail on Wednesday against the Kings.”

Proof that the Ducks have recovered a bit from their disastrous offensive week came at 5:27 of the first--when they scored a power play goal for the first time in their last 20 attempts, and only the third in 61. Troy Loney got a pass from Stephan Lebeau in front of the net and swept the puck in around goalie Craig Billington after Billington went down early.

A couple of minutes later, Billington was embarrassed by a shot from Todd Ewen that slipped out of his glove and over his head, then dropped in front of the goal line and bounced over.

Billington allowed a third goal to defenseman Sean Hill and was pulled for Mark LaForest after the first period, but it didn’t get better.

Garry Valk and Bob Corkum also scored, Corkum notching his 23rd goal and 50th point of the season--the first Duck to reach that milestone.