Rangers Still Can’t Figure Out the Ducks

The New York Rangers are going to beat the Mighty Ducks someday, but they’ve got only one more chance or they’ll be 0 for the Ducks’ first three seasons.

The Ducks’ 7-4 victory over the Rangers in front of 17,174 Friday at The Pond was their most dominant yet. The swept the Rangers during their 1993-94 Stanley Cup championship season and the teams didn’t meet last season because of the lockout.

A week ago, the Ducks were struggling at 2-8. Now they’ve won three consecutive games and have a four-game home winning streak, the longest in the franchise’s short history.

They’ve outscored their last three opponents--Calgary, St. Louis and the Rangers--by a combined 17-6.

“It’s come around for us, and it’s emotional, especially against a team like the Rangers,” right wing Paul Kariya said. “You look down their [Rangers’] lineup, they have some unbelievable hockey players and we held them in check most of the game and were able to score on them. That has to do a lot for your confidence.”

The Rangers’ Alexei Kovalev scored first, but then Kariya started an avalanche of Duck goals with a no-look pass to Bob Corkum on a two-on-one.

Corkum’s goal--his first of the season--tied the score 1-1 at 11:14 of the first. By the time the Rangers scored their next goal in the final minute of the second period, the Ducks had scored six.

“I think we got ambushed by a good hockey team that’s playing great right now,” said Ranger defenseman Kevin Lowe.

The Rangers started goalie Glenn Healy after Mike Richter allowed Wayne Gretzky to score on a dribbler off a faceoff Thursday in a 5-3 loss to the Kings.

But the Ducks got to Healy twice in the first period, and when he gave up two more goals in the first five minutes of the second--one of them a laugher when Joe Sacco scored his first goal of the season on a shot from the blue line--Coach Colin Campbell had seen enough.

Campbell and Healy got into a heated exchange on the bench but afterward both said it was resolved.

“We’re both battlers and both emotional,” Campbell said. “Glenn wanted to stay in and battle for it and I wanted to shake the game up.”

“Maybe I deserved to be where I was,” Healy said. “My play wasn’t up to par. It was a frustrating night for everybody.”

Richter went in, but gave up a goal on the second shot he faced when Steve Rucchin swept in a rebound from in front of the net for the second time in the game, giving him six goals this season.

“We were playing a team that played last night and we jumped on all their mistakes,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “That might be the best we’ve ever played for 2 1/2 periods.”

It was Kariya’s first three-assist game in his career and his third three-point game in 13 games this season. He leads the Ducks with 10 goals and 16 points.

The Rangers were so thoroughly outplayed that Shaun Van Allen, perhaps the slowest skater on the team, outraced Adam Graves to score on a breakaway in the third to make it 7-2.

The Ducks lost their five-goal lead when Pat Verbeek scored his second goal of the game--this one with the Rangers holding a two-man advantage--and Mark Messier added another goal on the same power play.

Duck Notes

Left wing Todd Krygier as on crutches after leaving the game with a deep left thigh bruise after a second-period hit by Ulf Samuelsson, and Coach Ron Wilson said the Ducks will send in the tape seeking supplementary discipline because he believes Samuelsson stuck his knee out and caused the injury. . . . Right wing Dwayne Norris, signed from the Ice Dogs on Friday is expected to be assigned to Baltimore, last in the American Hockey League, once he clears waivers.