Ducks Have One Goal Left

Escape from the cellar. At this point, it’s about all the Mighty Ducks have left to play for as their season of discontent nears its end.

The Ducks crossed off almost everything else on their to-do list going into Wednesday’s 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers before an announced sellout of 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond.

Ensure Teemu Selanne scores his franchise-record 52nd goal. Check.

Make a commitment to a youth movement. Check.

Avoid a last-place finish in the Western Conference.

Well, that one remains a work in progress.

By rallying from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Oilers, the Ducks moved out of last and into 12th place. Steve Rucchin’s fourth goal in four games at 11:01 of the third period completed the Ducks’ comeback.

An apparent goal by Edmonton’s Roman Hamrlik with 41 seconds left in the game was washed out by video replay and the Ducks escaped with their ninth victory in 11 games against the Oilers. Edmonton’s Ryan Smyth was ruled to have been in the crease when Hamrlik scored.

“It’s been a very disappointing year, one of those years you just try to forget about right away,” Selanne said. “We have to start building for the future right away [in the off-season]. We have to fix the problems.”

Selanne, who added to his NHL-leading total by scoring an empty-net goal in the game’s final seconds, has been asked for his input from General Manager Jack Ferreira. They don’t plan to talk about the future until the season ends.

“There are a lot of different things we’re going to go through after the year is over,” Selanne said. “We’re going to try to have a good ending. We want to play for ourselves and finish with a good feeling.”

It hasn’t been easy as the Ducks’ winless streak climbed to five after Sunday’s 3-3 tie against the Calgary Flames. Wednesday’s victory was the Ducks’ first since defeating the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2, March 25.

“It’s not going be easy to try to stay positive,” Selanne said. “[But] I don’t think it’s that bad. I think management knows we need some more players. They know what they’re going to do.”

The Ducks seemed in desperate need of help early on Wednesday, starting out as if they had tee times on their minds rather than playing the Oilers.

They took two penalties in the game’s first five minutes and gave up two power-play goals. Smyth and Scott Fraser scored to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead after only 5:24.

It looked as if the Ducks were done before they got started. They were outshot, 8-0, to start the game and didn’t get their first shot on net until more than six minutes had passed.

But they awoke from their slumber and began to control the pace. It didn’t hurt that a rare strong second period enabled the Ducks to rally for a 2-2 tie going into the third period.

Tomas Sandstrom’s first goal since March 21 and Josef Marha’s fourth since the Ducks acquired him, did the trick.