Sub-Par Play Sinks Ducks

Al Sims had this one pegged, all right. He should have known. After all, he has seen it happen so many times this season.

Sims, a Mighty Duck assistant coach, said Monday the team has had great difficulties taking lower-echelon teams such as the Edmonton Oilers as seriously as it should.

Wednesday, the Ducks made it happen again, losing to the Oilers in listless, lackluster fashion, 3-2, before 10,342 at Edmonton Coliseum.

That’s four consecutive losses to the Oilers this season and follows a disappointing loss to the New York Islanders Saturday in the first game of this four-game trip.

The Ducks’ only win in their last six games was a 4-2 victory Sunday over the New Jersey Devils, the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Go figure.

A victory over the Oilers would have vaulted the Ducks past Edmonton and into fifth place in the Pacific Division. It wouldn’t have been cause to start printing playoff tickets, but at least it would have been a start.

“Right now, we’re not playing well against the teams directly ahead of us,” said Garry Valk, one of the few Ducks to play with much intensity Wednesday. “It seems like the big efforts come against the division leaders.”

True enough. The Ducks have handled the Devils twice, have two victories over Pacific Division-leading Colorado, and knocked off the Atlantic Division-leading New York Rangers and the Northeast Division-leading Pittsburgh Penguins.

But they are 7-12-1 against teams in the Pacific, including 1-2 against Vancouver, tonight’s opponent.

Now what, somebody asked Coach Ron Wilson.

“I guess I’ll have to stress how important the next game is,” he said. “It was a little frustrating. We had to put ourselves behind, 3-0, before we wake up and get going.”

After a 20-minute snoozefest in the first period, the Oilers awoke from their slumber quicker, capitalizing on Duck giveaways to score two of their three goals.

“The first five minutes, as I recall, we turned the puck over five times in the neutral zone and once high in our end,” Wilson said. “We’ve got people going the wrong way. One guy lets his teammates down and all of a sudden it’s a 3-on-2 break. Boom, it’s 3-0.”

Edmonton struck first when Glenn Anderson picked off a bad neutral zone pass, skated over the blue line and fired a wrist shot past Guy Hebert 3:07 into the second period.

Almost two minutes later, Todd Marchant tipped a perfect cross-ice pass from Jeff Norton into the net for a 2-0 Edmonton lead.

Next, Zdeno Ciger cruised down the slot and beat Hebert for his team-leading 23rd goal, giving the Oilers their 3-0 lead at the 6:54 mark. Jason Oliver stripped the puck from defenseman David Karpa and tapped the puck ahead to Ciger, who was behind the last defenders.

Other than that brief flurry, Hebert was solid throughout. By game’s end, he had stopped 37 of 40 shots.

Searching high and low for Duck standouts, Wilson settled on rookie J.F. Jomphe, who scored his first NHL goal to cut the Oilers’ lead to 3-2 at the 11:57 mark of the third.

“Jomphe was probably our best player out there,” Wilson said. “I don’t expect Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne [who each had an assist Wednesday] to go out and get in other guys’ faces. I expect that from all the other guys, though. And, except for J.F., we’re not getting that.”

Defenseman Randy Ladouceur scored the Ducks’ other goal, his first since last May 3, in the second period.

Duck Notes

Shaun Van Allen was scratched for the third consecutive game with back spasms. Coach Ron Wilson said he prefers to move cautiously with Van Allen, hoping his energetic center is 100% before returning him to the lineup. . . . Defenseman Oleg Mikulchik, a healthy scratch for nine consecutive games before playing Sunday, earned another spot in the lineup Wednesday. He replaced Don McSween. Forward Mike Sillinger was the Ducks’ other healthy scratch. . . . Edmonton played without forward Jason Arnott, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Wednesday night. Arnott, the Oilers’ third-leading scorer with 17 goals and 37 points, had an MRI exam Monday, practiced Tuesday, but Wednesday his knee locked up during the morning skate. He is expected to be sidelined three weeks.