Ducks Win; Wilson Expands Vocabulary : Hockey: Coach cannot stop patting his team on the back after it battles back to gain a 3-1 victory over the lowly Edmonton Oilers.

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 team fines for uttering the word expansion --and they’ll be increased because his faux pas appeared in print.

His Ducks reached an expansion milestone Friday by winning for the 32nd time this season. Their 3-1 victory over Edmonton in front of 15,701 at Northlands Coliseum tied the NHL record for victories by a first-year team.

Only thing is, Florida beat them to the mark, though the Panthers are stuck on 32 with three games to go in their Eastern Conference playoff race. That leaves the record up for grabs.

“We’re pretty proud of that. We certainly did not expect it,” said Wilson. “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.”

The record was shared by the 1967-68 Kings and Philadelphia Flyers, who were among six teams the league added that season.

“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 glad we didn’t play 60 against expansion teams or our record would have been brutal ,” Wilson said, breaking into a laugh.

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.

A first-period hit knocked Terry Yake, the team’s leading healthy scorer, out of the game in the first period. 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, was 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.”

It’s only partly funny--a Grimson check in December knocked Anatoli Semenov out for two months with a dislocated left elbow.

But Patrik Carnback scored a second-period goal, then he and John Lilley assisted on Garry Valk’s 18th for a 2-1 lead at 10:08 of the third.

Edmonton helped the Ducks over the hump at the end when when Oiler Luke Richardson received a match penalty with 4:10 left for what was ruled 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

Shaun Van Allen’s wife, Colleen, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Aaron Shaun, early Friday morning. . . . Coach Ron Wilson was impressed with Maxim Bets in his rookie debut, but thinks he needs to increase his strength and size. Defenseman Scott Chartier’s NHL debut was postponed.