Ducks Tie Expansion Record With Win

The coach who banned the E-word slipped up Friday night. He used it himself. Repeatedly.

But Mighty Duck Coach Ron Wilson might not mind paying the fines for uttering the word expansion --and they’ll be increased because his faux pas appeared in print.

Wilson’s Ducks reached an expansion milestone Friday by winning their 32nd game, a 3-1 victory over Edmonton in front of 15,701 at Northlands Coliseum that tied the NHL record for victories by a first-year team.

Only thing is, Florida already reached the mark, though the Panthers are still stuck on 32 with three games to go in their Eastern Conference playoff race. The record will go to the team that wins the most games of its final three.

“We’re pretty proud of that. We certainly did not expect it,” said Wilson, who decided along with General Manager Jack Ferreira before the season that the connotations of the word expansion are too negative. “They’ve got three tough games left. We’re tied now. If they win a couple more and we win one, at least we’re No. 2 all-time.”

Before this season, the record was shared by the 1967-68 Kings and Philadelphia Flyers, who were among six teams added to the league in the same season and played a huge number of games against other expansion teams.

“The teams that won 31 in ’67 played a lot of their games against expansion teams. We only won two against expansion teams, so we have 30 wins against established teams,” Wilson said.

And a 2-10 record against expansion teams.

“I’m just glade we didn’t play 60 against expansion teams or our record would have been brutal ,” Wilson said, laughing.

The Ducks were behind, 1-0, after Kelly Buchberger’s first-period goal. A team that prides itself on being tough was being pushed around.

Terry Yake, who was the team’s leading healthy scorer, was put out for the game by a first-period hit that sent him woozily off the ice. He suffered a mild concussion and is questionable for today’s game at Vancouver.

Guy Hebert, who made 38 saves for his 20th victory of the season, got decked by Scott Pearson.

“It got chippy because we didn’t show up in the first period,” Wilson said. “They run our goalie, and we’re helping their guy up, not Guy.

“I thought Stu Grimson got us going in the second period with the hit he put on (teammate) Stephan Lebeau. Stephan got up with a bloody lip and Stu went to the penalty box.”

But Patrik Carnback scored a second-period goal, then he and John Lilley assisted Garry Valk on Valk’s 18th for a 2-1 lead at 14:06 of the second.

Edmonton helped the Ducks over the hump at the end when Oiler Luke Richardson took a match penalty with 4:10 left because of an attempt to injure Bobby Dollas, who fell to the ice after taking a stick to the jaw.

Tim Sweeney scored on the long power play at 18:23, and the Ducks were on their way to No. 32.

Duck Notes

Center Shaun Van Allen’s wife, Colleen, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Aaron Shaun, early Friday morning. Van Allen flew home from Edmonton Thursday morning and will rejoin the team when it returns to Anaheim. . . . . Coach Ron Wilson was impressed with the hands and playmaking sense of Maxim Bets in his debut, but thinks he needs to increase his strength and size. . . . . The family of Walt Disney Co. President Frank G. Wells, who died in a helicopter crash last Sunday, asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to Environment Now, an environmental restoration and protection group. The address is 450 Newport Center Dr., Suite 450, Newport Beach, CA 92660.