Hebert Shows Blues He’s a Real Stopper : Hockey: Duck goalie turns away 28 shots in 3-0 victory. Ewen gets first goal in two seasons.

Mighty Duck goaltender Guy Hebert said it was tough not to stare in 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 and diving stops, 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 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 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 28 shots in earning his first shutout since last 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, a 2-1 record in his last 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 couldn’t crack 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 opponents’ 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 a groin injury in the first period. Hull 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,” St. Louis Coach Mike Keenan said. “Our goaltending has been fabulous, it’s been unbelievable.”

Mighty Duck Notes

Players, coaches and management expect to be tested 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. . . . St. Louis traded veteran Esa Tikkanen to the New Jersey Devils for a third-round draft pick in 1997. Tikkanen helped St Louis Coach Mike Keenan bring the Stanley Cup to the New York Rangers in 1994, but the Blues are in the midst of dumping some of their high-salaried players. Tikkanen’s salary is more than $800,000 this season.