Ducks Battle to Beat Ottawa : Hockey: Karpa’s goal in the final minute of the game clinches 3-2 victory for Anaheim.

The Ottawa Civic Centre is a far cry from the Montreal Forum, and the Senators are no Canadiens. So the high-flying Mighty Ducks seemed to start Saturday’s game against Ottawa as if the Senators finally gave them someone to look down on.

By midway through the third period, they were scrambling to avoid a loss. Instead, the Ducks pulled out a 3-2 victory--their sixth in the last seven games--when defenseman David Karpa knocked in a loose puck in front of the net with a minute left in regulation.

The Ducks are a game shy of .500 (8-9), despite losing eight of their first 10 games.

“No matter how ugly it is, a win is a win,” said goalie Guy Hebert, whose resurgence has been critical to the Ducks’ run. “We haven’t had the luxury of not playing well and winning a lot of games the last couple of years.”

Karpa, better known as an agitator than an offensive threat, couldn’t think of once in his time with the team that the team had managed to win by playing less than its best.

“I’d have to say there aren’t any games where we haven’t played as well as we could have and still won,” said Karpa, who scored the first game-winner of his career and only his seventh goal in 118 NHL games.

The Ducks’ comeback Saturday was similar to their 3-2 overtime victory against Montreal Wednesday, and it spared them the displeasure of Coach Ron Wilson.

“Ottawa’s no different than we are, they don’t get a lot of respect from other teams and players, especially,” Wilson said. “I don’t think we respected them coming in. We sort of slept through the first.”

Wilson admitted he’d have been happy with a tie after the Ducks fell behind, 2-1, at 8:55 of the third. Karpa was far more worried, having helped cause the two-on-one rush that Rob Gaudreau scored on. Karpa gave up the puck at mid-ice with his teammates going the other way.

“It was kind of redemption for me,” Karpa said. “I went from schmuck to hero in 20 minutes.”

Defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky, 19, played the same role he did against Montreal, tying the score, 2-2, in the third period with a blast from the blue line. The goal, his third of the season, came at 14:35 after Mike Sillinger won a faceoff and Bobby Dollas sent the puck quickly over to the young defenseman. Frank Musil and the Ducks’ Chad Kilger were screening Ottawa goalie Don Beaupre, who didn’t have a chance.

“Oleg’s got the big one-timer going,” Wilson said. “It’s great to see him get so excited every time he scores. The last four or five games, we’ve seen Oleg coming into his own.”

Sillinger has come into his own too, fulfilling some of the promise that made him Detroit’s first-round draft pick in 1989. He has seven goals and set a club record with a five-game goal streak. His fifth in five games came off a pass from Paul Kariya on a power play at 9:57 of the second. It tied the score, 1-1.

“It’s all confidence,” said Sillinger, who never could build up much of it when he was in and out of the lineup.

He specialized in hitting the crossbar late last season for the Ducks, but he’s hitting the net now.

“The more I play, the better I do,” Sillinger said. “Every practice Ron keeps saying, ‘Keep it going.’ He knows my game is a matter of getting a lot of ice time.”

Hebert will get a chance to keep his run going too. Wilson says he’s through playing guessing-games about who’s going to start.

“I’ve got to get Guy on a roll here. If it takes a two-week spurt for us to get over .500 and into the thick of things, we’ll go with Guy every night,” Wilson said. “We’re on a roll and we’re not going to give ourselves any excuses not to be on a roll.

“The last couple of nights out Guy Hebert has basically stoned the other team, or at least put us in position to win.”

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Duck Notes

Goalie Guy Hebert has felt more comfortable with new pads recently, and seems convinced they’re helping him control rebounds. He’s also preparing to wear a new mask. . . . The Ducks begin a four-game home stand Monday against the Kings in a rare 6 p.m. game. Six of their next eight games are at home, where they have a 5-2 record. . . . The Ducks have gone with the same six defensemen the past seven games, with Milos Holan and Oleg Mikulchik the odd men out. . . . Attendance was a paltry 8,988 Saturday. Ottawa’s Dan Quinn, who played for the Kings last season, missed his fourth consecutive game because of a broken left hand but is close to returning.