Ducks’ Hebert Stops Blues, Fuhr : Hockey: He turns back 28 shots in 3-0 victory over St. Louis’ veteran goalie for his first shutout since April.

Mighty Duck goaltender Guy Hebert admitted it was tough not to stare in wonder and admiration at the man working in the opposite net Wednesday at The Pond.

In the end, Hebert was a bit better than Grant Fuhr, less spectacular certainly, but a 3-0 winner over Fuhr and the St. Louis Blues nevertheless.

Pad save, stick save, glove save, skate save. Hebert had everything working, foiling every opportunity the Blues had to score.

Fuhr made sprawling saves, diving stops and most of it looked so easy. But he couldn’t shut out the Ducks, losing the goaltending duel to Hebert.

“Grant has been the best in the world and he continues to show people they were wrong about what happened to him last year,” Hebert said of Fuhr, who was 1-7-3 in 14 games for the Kings last season. “I just wanted to stop the shots that came at me. You can get caught up in watching the other guy and I didn’t want to let that happen.”

Hebert’s superb play in net and goals from enforcer Todd Ewen and playmakers Todd Krygier and Paul Kariya enabled the Ducks to end their seven-game losing streak to St. Louis. The Ducks’ last victory over St. Louis was Jan. 8, 1994.

After a lackluster 2-8 start, the Ducks have put together consecutive strong performances. Neither the Blues nor the Calgary Flames, Sunday’s victim, rank among the NHL’s elite, but the Ducks will gladly take victories where they can get them.

“We’re getting results we haven’t been getting before,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “Good goaltending, for one. And we’re scoring on our opportunities.”

The Ducks leaned heavily on Hebert, who stopped all 28 shots he faced in earning his first shutout since April 17 against the San Jose Sharks.

Hebert, 3-5 against his former team, was outstanding from start to finish. And after a shaky start to the season, he has a 1.68 goals-against average and a 2-1 record in his past three starts.

“It’s kind of special for me because it was St. Louis,” Hebert said. “But the most important thing is that after the last game against Calgary, we wanted to get on some kind of roll . . . It was a solid game by everybody in this locker room.”

The Ducks took the game to the Blues for long stretches of play, but simply couldn’t click. They won small battles, along the boards and in the corners, but couldn’t Fuhr.

Finally, Ewen slipped behind the St. Louis defense, camped out by the right post and tipped in a cross-ice pass from Garry Valk.

“My linemates [Valk and Bob Corkum] did 90% of the work on that,” Ewen said. “I just did the rest. We’d like to continue to do that.”

Ewen showed the soft hands of a goal scorer on the play. He is anything but, however. That goal, which gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at the 11:13 mark of the second period, was his first since March 26, 1994. He went without a goal or assist for the entire 1995 season.

Mostly the Ducks count on Ewen to ball his hand into a fist to pummel opponent’s tough guys. He did a fair job of that too, outslugging Basil McRae in a first-period scrap.

The Blues lost top scorer Brett Hull when he aggravated an old groin injury in the first period.

It’s been nightmarish start to the season for Hull, who was stripped of his captaincy by Coach Mike Keenan and traded barbs publicly. The bad feelings have cooled recently, and Hull started Wednesday’s game with a team-leading eight goals and 15 points.

He didn’t have much of a chance to help the Blues during the short time he was on the ice Wednesday, however.

“We’re not scoring much at all,” Keenan said. “Our goaltending has been fabulous, it’s been unbelievable.”

Duck Notes

The players, coaches and management expect to be tested en masse some time in the next two weeks to see if any of them has the same blood type as defenseman Milos Holan, who has leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Holan has been cleared to play by doctors, but was scratched Wednesday by Coach Ron Wilson.