Team Has Some Secret Admirers

The Ducks’ sightseeing trip Wednesday to the White House turned out to be more than your average tour, which might have explained all those Secret Service types hanging around the dressing room Thursday.

Although they missed meeting President Bill Clinton, who was vacationing in South Carolina, the Ducks got the VIP tour. They went into the Oval Office and posed for pictures at Clinton’s desk.

“The thrill of a lifetime,” said Paul Kariya, a Canadian. “Just the history of it all. I mean you see it in pictures, but it’s just not the same.”

The Ducks invited several Secret Service agents to attend Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals.

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Coach Pierre Page continued to tinker with his lineup, scratching rookies Matt Cullen and Jeremy Stevenson.

Page instead played Ted Drury and Sean Pronger, who did not play in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Drury and Pronger assisted on Mark Janssens’ second-period goal, which gave the Ducks a brief 2-0 lead at 6:50.

Rookie Mike Crowley was a healthy scratch.

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The Ducks had killed off 21 consecutive short-handed situations going into the second period Thursday, two shy of the team record of 23 set earlier this season.

But with J.J. Daigneault in the penalty box for a holding an opponent’s stick, Washington’s Andrew Brunette ended the streak at the 7:51 mark on a tap-in after a pass through the crease from former Duck Todd Krygier.

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When the Chicago Blackhawks shut out the Ducks, 2-0, last Sunday in Chicago, it was the first time in 100 games that Kariya and Teemu Selanne had both been held without a point.