Mighty Ducks Struggle to Beat Floundering Tampa Bay

The only coach in the franchise’s six-season history got canned last week. The team hadn’t won in almost a month and had recorded only one tie in the past nine games.

Sixty minutes against the floundering Tampa Bay Lightning seemed like just the thing to snap the Mighty Ducks from their home rink doldrums Wednesday at the Pond.

Wrong. It took Ted Drury and Teemu Selanne to rally the Ducks to a tougher-than-it-looked, 5-2 victory over the Lightning.

Drury’s fourth career two-goal game and Selanne’s 11th and 12th goals in the past eight games turned a taut game into the runaway the Ducks desperately wanted at the Pond.

Tomas Sandstrom also scored for the Ducks, who are 4-2-2 during Selanne’s torrid goal-scoring streak.

The Lightning (2-10-2) built a two-goal lead with 25 minutes of strong play against the lethargic-looking Ducks. Interim coach Rick Paterson, who replaced Terry Crisp last week, had the Lightning flying past the Ducks.

But it took Drury less than a minute in the second period to rally the Ducks with his second and third goals of the season.

First, he whistled a rising slap shot from the high slot past Tampa Bay goaltender Daren Puppa at the 8:27 mark of the second period. Next, he beat Puppa on a breakaway at 9:14 after Warren Rychel pried the puck away from a scrum along the left-wing boards.

Selanne, one game short of a career-best nine-game streak, then gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead at 5:04 of the third period after intercepting a pass in the defensive zone and racing ahead to score on a breakaway.

Puppa appeared to make the save, but the puck trickled between his pads and the Ducks’ comeback was complete. Selanne later beat defenseman Roman Hamrlik to a loose puck and put a high shot past Puppa to tie Philadelphia’s John LeClair for the league lead with 13 goals.

It was only the Ducks’ second victory at the Pond this season, improved their overall record to 6-5-4 and the near-sellout crowd of 17,067 gave them a standing ovation at game’s end.

“The fans are all grumpy this year,” Duck Coach Pierre Page said before the game. “We’ve gone to more rinks this year where the fans are all grumpy. Ticket prices are high. The home teams are all supposed to be winning.”

Add the absence of unsigned free agent Paul Kariya to the mix in Anaheim and the fans’ anger is understandable.

Wednesday outside the Pond, a group called Fans1st posted a “Sports Fans of America Bill of Rights” and asked fans to fill out a questionnaire.

Among the questions were: Who do you think is most at fault in the Kariya situation? How would you rate Disney iin terms of its success thus far in managing the growing of the Mighty Ducks as a franchise?

Small groups clustered around the display, but many more filed quietly past and into the Pond to watch the Ducks’ first home game since their 2-1-2 Eastern trip.

Once inside, fans watched a flat-footed start by the Ducks that resulted in a two-goal deficit by the 5:12 mark of the second period. Goals by Mikael Renberg and Jeff Norton gave the Lightning the lead.

“I think we had a bad start,” Selanne said. “We were sleeping. A lot of times the first game back from a long road trip is the most difficult. The second period was better and one of the things we wanted to do this year was be a better third-period team. That’s what did it for us tonight.”

To be sure, goaltender Guy Hebert also had a hand in the Duck victory.

“Guy kept us in the game,” Page said.

Hebert, who didn’t play Sunday against Detroit after shutting out Boston, 3-0, last Thursday, stopped 32 of 34 shots and improved his record to 3-4-2.

After Norton’s point shot with Tampa Bay on the power play at 5:12 eluded him, Hebert stopped everything the Lightning threw at him. Karl Dykhuis’ shot off the goalpost early in the third period was the Lightning’s last, best chance to score late in the game.