Selanne Sidelined, so Ducks Fall to Flames

Close, but no Selanne.

For the first time this season, the Mighty Ducks had to play without Teemu Selanne, and they lost to Calgary, 3-2, Tuesday in front of 17,118 in a crucial Western Conference game at the Saddledome.

Selanne, the NHL’s second-leading scorer, strained a muscle in his left side Sunday against Edmonton and is doubtful for tonight’s game at Vancouver as well.

The Ducks might have won without him, but they made a few defensive errors, several by defenseman Dave Karpa.

Could Selanne--with his 98 points and 47 goals this season--have made the difference?

“Well . . . he’s worth at least a goal a game at this point,” said Paul Kariya, who scored his 38th goal of the season on a first-period power play. “Defensively, we were horrendous today. We had our chances to win or at least tie, but we didn’t do it.”

The Ducks are in sixth place, one point ahead of seventh-place Calgary and two points ahead of No. 8 St. Louis for the final playoff spot. But they missed a chance to put five points between themselves and Calgary.

The most comforting thing for the Ducks right now is that only one other team seems to have a realistic shot of crashing the gate--Chicago, three points back in ninth.

Barring a dramatic improvement or change of philosophy, Selanne won’t play tonight against Vancouver, but he is aiming for Friday, which would give him five days of rest.

“Chicago is my goal,” Selanne said after skating lightly for about 15 minutes before Tuesday’s morning skate, wearing a warmup suit and baseball cap. With his torso taped, Selanne skated easily, but he didn’t try to sprint or even shoot.

“I felt pretty good, but it still feels pretty tight,” he said. “Of course I would like to play. . . . [But] it’s too much risk.”

Duck goaltender Guy Hebert started for the 41st time in 42 games despite a hyperventilation episode Sunday against Edmonton, and said he felt ready to play again tonight.

“I’m kind of ticked off about this game right now, and I hope to get back in there,” Hebert said.

It looked as if Hebert might be running out of gas early in the game--he faced his 2,000th shot of the season in the first period--but he said he has recovered from the exhaustion he felt Sunday.

“I slipped on the first goal,” he said. “My skate kind of went out from under me. It certainly wasn’t pretty.”

Still, it was difficult to blame Hebert for giving up a goal on a two-on-one, with Cory Stillman scoring off a pass from Jonas Hoglund as Darren Van Impe tried to defend and Karpa scrambled back from behind after getting caught up-ice.

Karpa was on the ice for all three goals against, and perhaps his worst error came when he barreled into Hebert and knocked him down, preventing him from making a save on Sandy McCarthy for the Flames’ third goal.

“He just caught me by surprise,” Hebert said. “He did a great job trying to take away everything. He was working hard. You can’t get mad. He still tried to make the save when he realized I couldn’t, but the shot hit his stick and went in.”

Said Karpa: “I played my heart out, but it was that kind of night. It seemed like everything I tried to do, I messed up.”

With Selanne out, Jari Kurri took his place on the first line with Paul Kariya and Steve Rucchin. Brian Bellows replaced Kurri on the top line later in the game, but Kurri scored a key goal to cut the lead to 3-2 at 11:40 of the third.

It was Kurri’s 12th of the season but more important the 595th of his NHL career, leaving him five goals from becoming only the eighth player in NHL history to score 600 goals. Still, he wasn’t sure he actually scored the goal.

“Van Impe said, ‘I think it hit you,’ ” Kurri said. “I’ll take it.”

Duck Coach Ron Wilson was upset with the defense and Karpa, but he is convinced the Ducks can win without Selanne.

“We’ve just got to regroup and get back at it [tonight],” he said.