Wilson Frustrated by Ducks’ Meek Defeat

In a city many of the Mighty Ducks consider home, they left the hometown Bruin fans smug and happy after a 7-2 Boston victory Thursday night.

The Ducks fell behind, 2-0, after five minutes and 4-0 after 20 minutes. An exasperated Coach Ron Wilson said after the game that he’ll take at least three players out of the lineup tonight against Chicago, complaining that it’s “the same people making the same mistakes.”

“I’m not going to point any fingers. I don’t know what I can do. I don’t think I can come up with a Knute Rockne speech every night. The players have got to be accountable. I’m accountable. I don’t understand. I don’t know how we can play so well against Philly and then play like this.”

Mike Sillinger, one of the few Ducks who didn’t disappear from the dressing room after the game, said, “We just weren’t mentally prepared for the game. We came out here and got no shots, no hits, no nothing.

“They took the game to us. There is no excuse for that at all [regarding Wilson]. It’s not his job to motivate the team. We’re professional athletes. We’ve got to motivate ourselves each and every night. If you can’t get excited about playing in the National Hockey League, you’ll be out of the league in a hurry.”

Bigger news in Boston was the Bruins’ acquisition of Edmonton goalie Bill Ranford in a surprising trade that showed the Oilers are going to go with Curtis Joseph--the former St. Louis goalie who had been unsigned and playing for little more than meal money with minor league Las Vegas.

The Oilers signed Joseph on Thursday for $5.7 million over three years, sending Ranford to Boston for winger Mariusz Czerkawski, prospect Sean Brown and Boston’s first-round pick in June’s draft.

It was a changing of the guard in Edmonton, where Ranford had been one of the last holdovers from the Oiler dynasty. For the Bruins, long a suitor of Joseph, getting Ranford was an unexpected twist. But Edmonton had soured on him recently, with some people believing he exaggerated his injuries in times of crisis, such as complaining of a sprained ankle after a 5-0 loss to Tampa Bay last week.

It was also the first time that Oiler General Manager Glen Sather has agreed to pay a contract in U.S. rather than Canadian dollars.

The trade wasn’t good news for Boston goalie Craig Billington, who had a shutout until 4:15 of the third, when Todd Ewen beat him on a rebound.

Paul Kariya assisted on the play, and with the point broke the Duck record for scoring in a season by reaching 53 with 38 games still to play. The record of 52 was set by Bob Corkum in 1993-94. Kariya broke Corkum’s record for goals in a season on Tuesday when he scored his 24th.

Adam Oates and Todd Elik each had a goal and three assists for the Bruins, and Cam Neely, who had been benched until recently, scored his 21st and 22nd goals of the season and added an assist.

Wilson started the second by sending goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov in for Guy Hebert after Hebert gave up four in the first. But Wilson said Hebert was “fine” and he only wanted to rest him so he can start tonight against Chicago.

Only two nights earlier, after tying Philadelphia even though weather threatened to prevent the Ducks from showing up, a pleased Wilson joked that he should make their trip to Boston just as arduous.

“Maybe we should take a bus,” he said.

Duck Notes

Center David Sacco, recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, said he hopes to return Sunday at Winnipeg at the soonest. . . . Walt Kyle, coach of the Ducks’ minor league affiliate in Baltimore, has been approached by USA Hockey about handling the U.S. junior national team full time. Kyle has coached the team in tournaments in the past and USA Hockey is committed to improving its development program. However, Kyle might be more interested in maintaining ties to the NHL.