Ducks Better but Not Good Enough

It looks about the same in print. Hartford 4, Mighty Ducks 1.

It looked a lot better on the ice, with the Whalers up only 1-0 well into the third period Thursday before 12,328 at Hartford Civic Center.

The Ducks competed. They made defensive plays. Somebody besides Teemu Selanne had some scoring chances.

And they lost again. The team’s six-game losing streak matches the longest in franchise history, set during the first month of the team’s existence in 1993. The Whalers, in contrast, are 5-1 and off to one of the best starts in team history.

“It’s just frustrating beyond words,” said the Ducks’ Steve Rucchin, who was at the center of much of the game’s action, getting a career-high eight shots, many of them point-blank, as well as getting called for a disputed penalty that set up Hartford’s critical first goal. “I guess it’s a double-edged sword. We played better but we’ve got a ways to go. It still isn’t enough.”

The Ducks have scored three goals over their last four games, and were on the verge of being shut out a second consecutive game until Selanne scored his sixth goal of the season with 3:31 left, ending a scoreless streak of 154 minutes 20 seconds that began during the second period Sunday against Boston in Anaheim.

For an idea how long it had been since the last Duck goal, the player who scored it, Roman Oksiuta, has a son, born Tuesday, who hasn’t been alive that long.

The final margin was three after Hartford’s Geoff Sanderson scored twice in the third and Paul Ranheim was awarded an empty-net goal with 21 seconds left.

But the crucial goal came at 9:13 of the second with Hartford on a five-on-three power play after referee Dan O’Halloran’s charging call against Rucchin.

With the Ducks already killing a penalty, Rucchin chased a loose puck into the Whalers’ zone. As he and Hartford defenseman Glen Wesley converged, goalie Jason Muzzatti darted out to the top of the circles trying to beat Rucchin to it. Wesley hit Rucchin, Rucchin banged into Muzzatti, and O’Halloran’s whistle blew.

That gave Hartford a two-man advantage for 1:50 and it was Wesley, coincidentally, who made good on it with a shot from the right circle that beat goalie Guy Hebert low on the glove side.

“The turning point for me was a questionable call,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “He gets hit by their guy into the goalie as they’re both going in after the puck. If the referee makes that call to make it five-on-four, I’d understand, but five-on-three? That’s a race for the puck and their guy hits Rucchin.”

Rucchin was even more upset.

“I tried to get an explanation from the official and he told me I didn’t do my best to avoid the goalie,” he said. “I get hit in the side by their defenseman. It’s a joke, it really is. It was three players in a collision. If it would have been another player and not the goalie there wouldn’t have been a call . . . It was just a bad call.”

Charging is usually reserved for violent checks, but a phrase in the rulebook says that “charging should be called in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper” whether the goalie is out of the crease or not.

The issue in this case was whether it was avoidable. Wesley’s hit on Rucchin made that questionable.