Mighty Ducks Stop Avalanche

Was that the last resort for the Colorado Avalanche?

They lost to the Mighty Ducks in November after a relaxing stay at a Rancho Santa Fe resort. Wednesday night, they lost to the Ducks, 2-1, at the Pond after being ensconced at a luxury hotel in Laguna Beach for four days.

Maybe next time it should be the Motel 6.

Colorado is a far superior team, but the Avalanche came up short against an an unusually determined and physical effort from the Ducks. For one night, it didn’t seem to matter that Colorado has the second-best offense in the NHL and the league’s fourth-ranked power play, and the Ducks have a laggard offense and the league’s worst power play.

“The way I look at it, most of the teams we’re chasing are going to lose to Colorado,” Duck forward Paul Kariya said. “We picked up two points, and this win could get us going.”

The game was scoreless until late in the second period, when Kariya made a spectacular play to set up defenseman David Karpa for a short-handed goal against Karpa’s former teammates.

“They might have changed uniforms and changed names, but it’s still the Quebec team,” goalie Guy Hebert said. “That was a sweet goal for Dave.”

Hebert outplayed Colorado’s Patrick Roy, but he lost the shutout at 12:08 of the final period when Joe Sakic scored his 32nd goal of the season on a shot from the left wing on an odd-man rush.

That cut the Ducks’ lead to 2-1, but they held off the Avalanche over the final eight minutes. Hebert finished with 39 saves, and had he stopped Sakic, he could have handed the Avalanche only its second shutout of the season.

“This is a great team here, Colorado,” Hebert said. “To win a 2-1 game against them is a big confidence boost.”

Plenty of credit for the victory had to go to Kariya, who assisted on the Ducks’ first goal and scored the other.

Kariya likes to say he wants to play the game of hockey the way Magic Johnson plays basketball. Late in the second, he made Sakic look about as lost as Latrell Sprewell did on Magic’s fake at the Forum Tuesday night.

With Colorado on a power play, Kariya sprinted over the blue line, shoved the puck past Sakic and then cut behind him to pick up his own pass, leaving Sakic hung out to dry.

“It’s just spur-of-the-moment,” Kariya said. “You can’t do it if he’s not in the right position.”

That move left Kariya with a two-on-one, and he let Colorado defenseman Adam Foote slide by face-first trying to block the pass before feeding a wide-open Karpa.

Karpa, no offensive wizard, wisely held the puck, gathered himself, and beat Roy just under the crossbar with 1:16 left in the second.

“The only thing he left me was the shelf there,” Karpa said. “I used to play a little forward. I was trying to hang on and see what he was going to give me.”

Kariya called Karpa’s goal “a fantastic play.”

“He waited for Patrick to go down and then popped it upstairs,” Kariya said.

Duck Coach Ron Wilson has been focusing his message on special teams play recently. “If we can’t score on the power play, we’ve got to make sure the other team doesn’t either,” Wilson said.

The Ducks killed off all five power-play opportunities they allowed Colorado, and scored their goals short-handed and on a five-on-three, when Kariya scored from the slot at 8:59 of the third.

Duck Notes

Defenseman Don McSween is still waiting for his chance to crack the lineup after returning from Baltimore. “I’m getting anxious, but they’ve been so patient with me, so I’ve got to be patient with them,” said McSween, who suffered severe nerve damage in his right hand more than a year ago when he was cut by a skate blade. “When it’s best for the team for me to get a chance, I’ll be ready.”. . . Defenseman Milos Holan has not yet received a schedule for the bone-marrow transplant he needs to treat his leukemia. Doctors are still completing donor arrangements. Holan left the team in early January to prepare physically and emotionally for the procedure. . . . Rookie center Chad Kilger was a healthy scratch for the third consecutive game.