Kariya Scores in Duck Debut : Hockey: After tentative start, rookie adjusts and gets goal in late going of 4-3 loss to Stars.

Call him Paul Kariyaov.

Paul Kariya had a goal and an assist in his NHL exhibition debut Tuesday night in the Mighty Ducks’ 4-3 loss to Dallas, playing on a line with center Anatoli Semenov and fellow rookie Valeri Karpov, who also had a goal and an assist in his debut.

“Paul plays like a Russian,” Semenov said. “He plays like Pavel Bure. He has speed and he’s smart.”

Kariya laughed.

“I do love borscht,” he said. “I was telling (Semenov) he should make some for me.”

Semenov, a veteran who had his best NHL season while playing on a line with Bure in Vancouver, knows Kariya isn’t as strong or quite as rocket-fast as Bure, but, he says, “Same thinking.”

Kariya, 19, seemed tentative early in Tuesday’s game, unable to pull off the moves he had in mind--even tripping over referee Don Koharski’s skate at one point. But shift after shift, he made adjustments.

“At the beginning I expected that. He got more confident as the game went on,” Coach Ron Wilson said.

Said Kariya: “It was a learning experience I have to learn what I can and can’t do at this level. . . . Nothing comes just like that. It takes years, not just one game.”

The game was a physical one, and Dallas players took aim at the Ducks’ hotshot rookie more than once. Craig Ludwig welcomed him to the NHL with a hit that knocked his helmet off--one of a few runs that led Wilson to say he “made a mistake” by leaving tough guys Stu Grimson and Todd Ewen at home.

“When they had a chance to give me a shot, they gave me a shot. That’s the game of hockey,” Kariya said. “(But) I put myself in positions where they could do that.”

He found fault with his play, regretting that he didn’t establish his speed early to force the defense to back off, disappointed that he didn’t see more quickly that Dallas was playing him to make his cutback moves.

Even his goal, at 15:20 of the third, came off what he called “a bad pass” after he set up behind the net.

“(Semenov) was wide open in the slot,” he said.

Wilson thinks the Kariya-Semenov--Karpov line could mean to the Ducks what the Johan Garpenlov-Igor Larionov-Sergei Makarov line meant to San Jose last season. One of the few flaws he sees is occasional overpassing by Kariya and Semenov, two playmakers who would as soon have an assist as a goal.

Karpov, 23, who the Ducks drafted in the third round in 1993 but were unable to sign until this summer after he played in the Olympics, is in position to capitalize.

“I think he’s very talented too,” Semenov said. “Good speed, nice hands, smart too.”

Karpov’s goal came off a pretty pass across the slot from Semenov at 2:13 of the third, with Kariya picking up the second assist.

That gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead before goalie John Tanner took a penalty for delay of game after shooting the puck out of the rink. Dallas’s Mike McPhee quickly scored on the power play, and Mike Modano and Richard Matvichuk added goals to give Dallas a 4-2 lead.

“I think it’s OK, first game,” Semenov said. “I can’t say, ‘I’m happy we played great.’ No, is not true. Only when the season is over. Tonight is one game, it’s nothing to say.”

Notes

The game at Reunion Arena also marked the Duck debut of veteran defenseman Tom Kurvers, a power-play specialist the Ducks traded for during the off-season in hopes he will help turn around a power play that was the worst in the NHL last season. Kurvers scored the Ducks’ first goal--on a power play--at 12:46 of the second. . . . Rookies Paul Kariya, Valeri Karpov and Nikolai Tsulygin are scheduled to play again against San Jose at 6:35 p.m. tonight in Denver. Forwards Bob Corkum, Terry Yake, Todd Ewen and Stu Grimson are among the players meeting the team in Denver for the game, while a number of those who played in Dallas will return home. . . . Dallas’ Jarkko Varvio suffered a sprained neck and mild concussion after a hit by David Williams and was spending the night at a hospital for observation. . . . Dallas’ Alan May is out at least two weeks after surgery to repair a lacerated tendon in his left knuckle after a fight with Myles O’Connor.