Ducks’ Rally Deflated by One Bad Break

Should the Mighty Ducks fail to make the playoffs, if their season ends Sunday at the Pond, blame it on one incredible, deflating bounce in the third period of their 80th game.

Trailing the Colorado Avalanche, 4-3, but closing fast, all the life seemed to drain from the Ducks in one fateful moment at the 6:30 mark of the third period Wednesday at McNichols Arena.

To the Ducks, it must have seemed like a nightmare from which they could not awake and were powerless to control.

The game’s turning point came about in surreal fashion. In truth, there wasn’t merely one quirky bounce. There were several.

Duck defenseman Fredrik Olausson went behind his own net to retrieve a loose puck. Colorado right wing Mike Keene gave the obligatory chase. Olausson wound up to slap the puck around the boards and out of harm’s way.

But when Olausson fanned on the pass, the puck was there for Keene’s taking. Keene wasn’t in position to do much with it, so he whipped a blind backhander toward the net--just hoping to hit a teammate trailing the play.

The puck hit the skate of Duck center Anatoli Semenov, slid past goaltender Guy Hebert and into the net.

In a flash, the Ducks’ momentum was gone and perhaps their playoff chances, too. Soon enough, Colorado pushed the lead to 6-3, then 7-3 by game’s end.

At first, Duck Coach Ron Wilson wouldn’t pin the blame for the loss on the fluke goal. He touched on not being mentally sharp, on the fatigue of playing three games in four days. But eventually, his postgame comments came back to Keene’s goal. There was really no way he could avoid it.

“It was the worst sort of bounce in the world,” Wilson said. “That goal the way it happened . . . “

Two games still remain and the Ducks left McNichols Arena desperately hoping to forget what happened.

It won’t be easy, particularly if they don’t defeat Dallas Friday and Winnipeg Sunday and miss out on one of the Western Conference’s eight playoff berths.

“I didn’t even see it,” Semenov said of the goal. “I thought the defenseman had it. He fanned or something. Then it was, like, ‘Oh my God.’ ”

There was still a chance Hebert would smother the errant puck and bail out Semenov and Olausson.

Going into Wednesday, Hebert had been so sharp, so reliable as the Ducks roared down the stretch with a league-best 13-3-3 record since March 1. He had shutouts in two of the last four games and posted a goals-against average of 1.48 in the last six.

But Hebert was powerless to stop the puck after it changed direction off Semenov’s skate. He dropped to his knees, but his movement came an instant too late.

After the game, Hebert refused to speak with reporters, telling a team spokesman he “preferred to be alone.”

Keene was credited with his first goal since March 1, a 15-game scoreless streak. The Ducks never recovered.

“It’s no excuse why we lost,” right wing Teemu Selanne said. “Sure, it’s tough when we’re fighting to come back and they get a lucky goal like that. We’ve played so well lately. The bad games come once in a while.”

Down to their last two games, the Ducks know there is no margin for error now. Nor room for bad bounces, either.