Ducks Lose Game, Opportunity : Hockey: With a chance to improve its slim playoff chances, team loses, 2-0, to Dallas at The Pond.

The Dallas Stars have something the Mighty Ducks say they want--the final Western Conference playoff spot.

It was time for the Ducks to give it their best shot Friday night, but they didn’t muster many good ones in a 2-0 loss to Dallas in front of 17,174 at The Pond of Anaheim.

The Dallas defense bottled up the Ducks’ offense and goalie Andy Moog made 18 saves, recording his first shutout of the season and 20th of his career.

Before the game, the standings looked tantalizing to the Ducks.

Win, and they would be only two points behind the Stars for the final playoff spot.

But they didn’t win, and while they were losing, San Jose and Winnipeg were winning, breaking the three-way tie for 10th place to leave the Ducks alone in last again, six points behind Dallas.

“We recognized the importance of this game, certainly,” said defenseman Randy Ladouceur, the team captain. “Sure, it was a disappointment, no doubt about that. If we had gotten the win, it would have put us in the thick of things. But there’s no reason we can’t make the playoffs. . . . We all believe in this room that we can make the playoffs.”

Dallas entered the game clinging to eighth place in the conference and still regrouping after two trading-deadline deals earlier in the day.

Russ Courtnall was very publicly on the trading block, and finally went to Vancouver at the 11th hour for wingers Greg Adams and Dan Kesa. Adams and Kesa didn’t join the team in time for the game. The Stars also traded tough winger Alan May, sending him to Calgary for a draft pick.

The game was scoreless until the Stars managed two second-period goals. Ex-King winger Mike Donnelly scored the only goal Dallas needed when he picked up a rebound and spun a shot from the slot past Duck goalie Guy Hebert at 10:50.

It was Donnelly’s 11th goal of the season--and his 10th in 23 games since the Kings gave him to the Stars for a fourth-round draft pick on Feb. 17.

Dallas rookie Todd Harvey made the lead 2-0 when he found a rebound and angled a shot that eluded Hebert’s glove about hip-high at 14:31.

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Duck Notes

A woman in Oakland County, Mich., has filed a paternity suit against Duck defenseman Bobby Dollas, seeking to force him to pay for prenatal care and child support, the Associated Press reported. Chelsea Nicole Godman filed the suit Dec. 14. Court papers filed on Dollas’ behalf in February denied that he is the father, and Dollas declined comment as he arrived before Friday’s game. “I can’t say anything,” he said. Dollas played for the Detroit Red Wings for three seasons, ending in 1993. A spokesman for the Mighty Ducks called the suit “a personal matter.”