Another Goose Egg for Ducks : Hockey: They are shut out for second game in a row, this time in 3-0 loss to Blackhawks and Belfour.

The Mighty Ducks certainly have zeroed in on the problem.

Twice in a row, as a matter of fact.

After a 3-0 loss to Ed Belfour and the Chicago Blackhawks in front of 21,546 at the United Center Sunday afternoon, the Ducks have been shut out in consecutive games. Friday night, they lost to Dallas, 4-0.

It’s ugly, but it doesn’t set any records. Last March, the Ducks were shut out three consecutive times during a scoreless streak that lasted 200 minutes 26 seconds.

Against Chicago, if not for a couple crucial Duck mistakes, the score might have been different.

It might have been 0-0. Should that really be any comfort?

Twenty games into the season, the Ducks have scored a mere 41 goals, a smidgen above two per game. It’s no wonder they’ve lost 11 of their last 15 and are in last place in the Western Conference, a point behind the Kings.

Belfour needed to make only 16 saves to continue his mastery over the Ducks, shutting them out for the fourth time in the seven games he has played against them. This one was the 27th shutout of his career and his league-leading fourth of the season. It was his second of the year against the Ducks.

“That’s definitely something you keep in the back of your mind,” he said. “You know going into the game that you feel confident and strong against them and you’re going to have a good game most of the time.”

Duck defenseman Robert Dirk had a pained look on his face after the game, and that was because the only goal that mattered went into the Ducks’ net off him a little more than four minutes into the game. Dirk was trying to clear the rebound of a shot by Jeremy Roenick during a Chicago power play. Instead, he knocked the puck past goalie Guy Hebert.

“It just went in off me,” said Dirk, usually one of the team’s steadiest defenders. “It hit the post and hit me and then hit Guy and hit me again. It was one of those bad bounces. . . . Why can’t something like that go in for us? It was my responsibility. I was in front of the net and Guy makes the save and I’ve got to clear the rebound.”

Roenick was already past the net watching when he saw the light go on after Hebert and Dirk’s awkward tangle.

“I was almost back to the bench by then, it was great,” Roenick said. “You make some and you miss some, and some go in off other people.”

The Blackhawks scored another power-play goal in the first minute of the second period, when Joe Murphy swept a rebound into a nearly open net after Hebert went down to make the initial save on Chris Chelios’ point shot. Defenseman David Williams didn’t clear the rebound, and Murphy swept the puck around Hebert to his forehand and scored. The final goal was an empty-netter by Christian Ruuttu with 13 seconds left.

It was a bit of revenge for the Blackhawks, who were embarrassed in a 3-1 loss Wednesday at The Pond of Anaheim.

The Ducks didn’t do much to threaten the shutout in the third, managing only three shots, though a number of shots on good chances went wide. And when the Ducks did get chances, they didn’t get second chances.

“I think (Chicago Coach Darryl) Sutter must tell them if they give up a second shot they have to do 100 push-ups or something,” Duck winger Garry Valk said. “They’re strong in front of the net. I think we need to play the same way.”

Valk had one of the best opportunities of the game early in the third, when Bob Corkum fed a blind backhanded pass to him in the slot and Valk fired low, but Belfour gloved it.

“I wish I had that one back,” said Valk, who second-guessed himself about not trying to go high. “But when you’re struggling you don’t want to waste a good chance by maybe putting it over the net and then everybody on the bench will slump over.”

Valk and Corkum said the pressure has led to some “yelling” and “personality conflicts” on the bench and in the dressing room recently, but said the approach was more “positive” Sunday. The quickest cure would be a couple of goals.

“Sometimes you just need a lucky break, a lucky goal,” Wilson said. “We’ve just got to stick to it. We generally played well.”

Duck Notes

Former Blackhawks Stu Grimson and Robert Dirk stared at the sheared-away side of old Chicago Stadium as they arrived at the new United Center across the street. Dirk said he missed the old building and Grimson said, “It’s too bad, really. I said many times it would have been a real treasure as a Chicago Sports Hall of Fame.” Instead, the facility is being demolished. “This sure is a fair substitute,” Grimson said as he gazed around the spacious visitor’s dressing room. “The old one was like a closet, a cockroach-filled closet.” . . . Right wing Todd Ewen and left wing Tim Sweeney returned to the lineup after not playing for several games. Forwards Peter Douris, Anatoli Semenov (bruised left knee) and David Sacco and defenseman Mark Ferner were scratches.