Penalties Abound, but the Worst One Is Ducks’ 0-2 Start : Hockey: Kariya scores twice, but the Whalers’ 10 power plays prove to be one too many in 3-2 victory.

For the second time in two games this season, the Mighty Ducks were close enough at the end Wednesday to pull goalie Guy Hebert for an extra attacker in a last-ditch effort to tie the score.

But for the second time, they ended up with a one-goal defeat. And after losing to the Hartford Whalers, 3-2, before a sparse Civic Center crowd of 8,635, they realized they were still a week away from their first home game next Wednesday.

“We’ve got to go into Buffalo and come away with a win, and go into Pittsburgh and play hard there too,” defenseman David Karpa said, tacitly acknowledging the difficulty of facing the potent Penguins on Saturday after a game Friday in Buffalo.

The prospect is that the Ducks could start the season 0-4, without playing particularly badly. It has never taken them longer than three games to get their first victory--though of course, with only two seasons behind them, that’s a small sample.

“It’s only two of 82, that’s the proper perspective,” goaltender Guy Hebert said. “I’m not here kidding anybody we were going to win 82 games. We’re 0-2. We could be sitting here 2-0. And we’ve got two tough back-to-back games before we get home. But the good thing is that in both games we had a chance into the final minute.”

With five goals after two games, the Ducks need more scoring, and they need it from someone other than Paul Kariya, who scored both goals Wednesday and has three of the Ducks’ five this season.

The Ducks were also foiled by Hartford goalie Sean Burke, who shut out the Rangers on Saturday and was solid again, making 32 saves to give the Whalers their first 2-0 start since 1985.

But the Ducks hurt their chances by giving Hartford 10 power-play opportunities. They killed nine, but the winning goal came at 11:29 of the third with the Whalers holding a man advantage.

Karpa went off for handling the puck at 9:47, along with the Whalers’ Adam Burt, for high-sticking. A tripping call against Todd Krygier at 10:47 gave Hartford a four-on-three power play, and they made good on it.

“The odds are against you when you take that many penalties,” Karpa said.

With Geoff Sanderson about to shoot from the slot, defenseman Bobby Dollas went out, and Andrew Cassels skated in front of the net and found the rebound when it squirted out, putting it past Hebert at 11:29.

“They just got two lucky swings, on the first goal and the third,” Hebert said. “The second time, how that puck ends up squirting out, I don’t know.”

Coach Ron Wilson couldn’t complain about the Ducks’ penalty-killing success rate--they were the worst in the NHL last season--but he criticized how often they put themselves at a disadvantage.

“We took stupid penalties in the third period,” he said. “Some guys were loafing out there and we had to take penalties because of them. It’s not always the guy going in the box.”

The Ducks never led, falling behind on Jimmy Carson’s goal 1:58 into the game before Kariya scored at 15:44 of the second. The Ducks were playing with their second two-man advantage of the game, and Dollas skated deep into the left circle until the defense committed, then quickly sent the puck across to Kariya, who one-timed it from the right circle for a 1-1 tie.

It lasted only 43 seconds. A pass from Burke, the goalie, helped Brendan Shanahan get out front, and Nelson Emerson beat the Ducks’ Mike Sillinger to the rebound to score at 16:27 for a 2-1 lead.

Kariya tied the score, 2-2, at 1:45 of the third when Krygier took the puck off the boards and whipped a pass to him cutting in front of the net. But just as they did in a 4-3 loss Monday at Winnipeg, the Ducks gave up the winner in the third.

“We could have won both games,” Dollas said. “You’ve got to know if you’re playing a lot of young players that they have to get used to things. But sooner or later, you’ve got to start winning.”

Mighty Duck Notes

Defenseman Milos Holan did not play because of flu, Coach Ron Wilson said, adding that several other players have been ill. Other scratches were right wing Todd Ewen (sore groin) and left wing Patrik Carnback and defenseman Oleg Mikulchik (coaches’ decisions). . . . Left wing Garry Valk was hit in the left arm by a slap shot in the third period, tripping before the shot and falling to the ice with his back to the shooter. He was icing his arm after the game. . . . Defenseman Bobby Dollas received a 10-minute misconduct penalty for reacting in frustration after the Whalers’ final goal. “Just the emotion of the game,” Dollas said.