Ducks Can’t Turn Over New Leaf : Hockey: They continue recent pattern of blowing big leads and have to settle for 4-4 tie with Toronto.

The battered, bruised and bloodied Mighty Ducks will get at least one point out of their grueling five-game Eastern swing. But their 4-4 tie against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night didn’t feel like much of a triumph in the end.

The Ducks blew a three-goal lead in the third period for the second time in little more than a week, and what would have been a tremendous victory in dire circumstances turned into a frustrating tie.

“If you said to us before the game we’d get a tie, we’d have been very happy,” said Duck Coach Ron Wilson, who was not very happy. “We’ve got to get over this mental block with leads.”

The Ducks blew a three-goal lead against Chicago on Nov. 24 and lost in overtime. This time, they had a 4-1 lead after two periods with Paul Kariya scoring his 17th and 18th goals of the season, but collapsed again.

“It’s a mental thing,” left wing Garry Valk said. “You sit back and get hesitant because you don’t want to make a mistake, and good players will walk all over you if you do that.”

The Ducks are an injury-ridden team, but one of their standouts was the player who has seen more doctors than any of them. Defenseman Milos Holan, who has a slow-progressing form of leukemia and is awaiting a bone-marrow transplant, scored the Ducks’ first goal and assisted on another.

Holan, 24, beamed after the game--except when he talked about the collapse.

“I was so happy because I finally got some of my shots through, and you’re always happy to score your first goal of the season,” said Holan, who has played the last three games after being scratched for 14 in a row even though he had medical clearance to play. With the Ducks on a roll, Wilson had gone with the same lineup night after night, especially since Holan faltered in his first two games after announcing his condition.

“Now I think he figured out I can play the same like before,” Holan said. “I hope I continue to play a lot of games.”

The roster of injured players actually shrunk a bit, with defenseman Jason York returning from a sprained ankle and center Bob Corkum returning early from facial lacerations so severe he wore a protective shield over his chin and mouth.

Seven regulars are still out, and of the 18 skaters the Ducks dressed, nine had less than the equivalent of a year’s experience in the NHL.

Their youth and speed helped early, but the wheels started to come off when Mike Gartner scored a power-play goal at 3:32 of the third with Kariya off for delay of game--his first penalty of the season.

Benoit Hogue cut the lead to 4-3 at 9:13 when he slid down the slot and took a beautiful pass from Mats Sundin from behind the net.

Mikhail Shtalenkov, who made 28 saves while starting his third consecutive game in place of Guy Hebert, made a glove save on Doug Gilmour with defenseman Randy Ladouceur down in front. But moments later, Dave Ellett was left almost alone near the blue line with plenty of open ice and he found Sundin cutting to the net to redirect his pass and tie the score with 4:37 left in regulation.

Both teams got a rare overtime power-play opportunity, but the game ended in a tie, the Ducks’ second in three games.