Canucks Ground the Road-Weary Ducks : Hockey: Vancouver goaltender Kirk McLean stops 30 shots and gets plenty of support in 6-1 victory.

Five games, five cities, nine days. If this was Friday, this must be . . . ? Wait, the itinerary must be here somewhere.

The Mighty Ducks got here Friday at 11:15 a.m., ate lunch, took a nap, were routed by the Canucks, 6-1, at the Pacific Coliseum and flew home. Nice day.

It might not have mattered if the road-weary Ducks had been well rested for Friday’s game, though. After a sluggish start, the Canucks used superior speed and skill to overwhelm them. Goaltender Kirk McLean stopped 30 shots and shut out the Ducks until Robert Dirk scored his first goal of the season with 8:44 left in the game.

After Vancouver’s Pavel Bure flew in alone to score on a defenseless Guy Hebert, the Canucks chalked up their second consecutive convincing victory this week. They defeated the Kings, 5-2, on Wednesday.

Vancouver led, 3-0, after Bure’s goal--at the 12:12 mark of the second period--and Herbert was replaced by backup Mikhail Shtalenkov.

“I thought I might as well give him some rest,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “It wasn’t his fault. Not at all. I thought he played well. This is a brutal part of the schedule.”

Hebert’s right hip has been troubling him, but said that wasn’t the reason for his early departure. He also said he wasn’t fatigued, despite playing 24 of the past 27 games, including Thursday’s 3-1 victory over Winnipeg at The Pond.

“I feel fine,” he said. “Every goalie wants to play every night. I’m no different. There was some concern over my hip, but I wanted to stay and finish the game.”

The rest of the Ducks spent too much time chasing Bure, Geoff Courtnall and Trevor Linden. They played well in spurts, won a few battles, but simply couldn’t keep pace.

“I’ve never been in a 6-1 game when I thought we played as well as the other team,” Wilson said.

That might sound strange, but Wilson believed McLean’s strong play in goal contributed to the lopsided result.

Power-play goals by Linden, with 3:07 left in the first period, and Jyrki Lumme, 23 seconds into the second, gave Vancouver enough to put the Ducks away. Courtnall set up each goal with passes from behind the goal line into the slot. Linden and Lumme merely slapped the puck past Hebert.

In the third, Martin Gelinas scored twice and the Canucks built a 5-0 lead. Gino Odjick added the sixth Vancouver goal with 2:04 left.

The Ducks had plenty of shots at McLean, but few good scoring chances. Bob Corkum misfired on a rebound with McLean sprawled on the ice in the midst of a first-period flurry.

The Duck power play, second-weakest in the NHL at 11% going into the game, was scoreless in seven attempts, which didn’t help matters.

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Duck Notes

The Hockey News rates defenseman Tom Kurvers as one of the most likely players to be traded before the April 7 deadline. The Ducks are Kurvers’ seventh NHL team in 11 seasons. He was scratched for the fourth time in five games on Friday.