Ducks Downed by Edmonton in Overtime, 3-2 : Hockey: Oilers’ Arnott scores first and last goals to give Oilers their first win over Anaheim.

The Mighty Ducks are finding out in their first season just how it feels to watch the out-of-town scoreboard and the standings during a playoff drive.

And the San Jose Sharks seem set on making them watch from afar.

The Ducks could have cut San Jose’s lead for the final Western Conference playoff spot to six points Thursday night, but instead they fell 10 points behind after losing to the Edmonton Oilers in overtime, 3-2, in front of 17,174 at The Pond in Anaheim.

Rookie Jason Arnott scored his 31st goal of the season at 1:44 of the extra period to lift the Oilers, who had trailed by a goal with five minutes left in regulation.

San Jose, meanwhile, is sprinting toward the finish line with a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2). The Sharks pulled off a come-from-behind victory over Toronto while the Ducks and Oilers were playing, erasing the Ducks’ hopes of cutting the Sharks’ lead to six points.

‘We pretty much dominated the third period, but at crunch time we made some bonehead plays,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “We blew two points, not just one. We blew two.”

The Ducks took a 2-1 lead at 13:34 of the third period on Joe Sacco’s rising slap shot from the right circle after he used his speed to get open. But the Oilers came right back at 15:47 when Steve Rice reached around goalie Guy Hebert, who had already gone down, to push in a rebound and tie the score, 2-2.

“We didn’t have much energy tonight, it seemed to me,” Wilson said. “But it shouldn’t have even gone to overtime. (Anatoli Semenov) has got to get the puck out and Guy can’t let a rebound sit right there.”

The game was scoreless until late in the second period, and it was not a stalemate of the scintillating variety. The Ducks were probably tired after an emotional victory over the Kings the night before, and the Oilers are, well, the Oilers.

Hebert helped keep the game deadlocked with a nearly blind glove save on Rice after a crowd converged in front of him after a point shot. Hebert, with his head practically in the knees of an Oiler, reached out to his left and grabbed a shot that it seemed he could not possibly have seen until it was by him.

The Ducks’ Shaun Van Allen had a good chance earlier, after poking the puck out of the zone on an Oiler power play and racing down the ice after it. But an Oiler caught him, at least long enough to keep Van Allen from controlling the park.

But it was the Oilers who scored first, when Kirk Maltby made a backhand pass with his back to the net, and Arnott managed to put the puck past Hebert while falling down. The goal, Arnott’s 30th, put Edmonton ahead, 1-0, at 17:47.

The Ducks didn’t just let the period expire, though, and they tied the score with 19 seconds left in the second when Stephan Lebeau scored in a scramble after Don McSween threw the puck in front and it came to Lebeau on the left side of the net off the stick of Bobby Dollas.

Edmonton goalie Fred Breathwaite, who has played in only 13 games this season and was still looking for his first victory, was injured on the play when a teammates ran into him and left the ice. But the injury proved to be only a torn fingernail, and he returned for the third--adn the overtime, and his first victory of the season.

Duck Notes

Unless the Mighty Ducks make the playoffs, Coach Ron Wilson is expected to coach the U.S. team in the World Championships April 25-May 8 in Italy.