Errorless Ducks Win Third in Row

The Mighty Ducks got it right this time.

Six times this season they had a two-game winning streak. Five times they were denied a three-game streak. Four times they embarrassed themselves with dismal showings.

Friday, the Ducks made no mistakes in winning their third in a row, taking a 2-0 victory from the oafish Chicago Blackhawks before an announced crowd of 12,632 at the Arrowhead Pond.

The Ducks last won three in a row during a franchise-record seven-game streak late last season. They last were three games above .500 on April 11, 1999, when they were 35-32-12.

Suddenly, and perhaps not all that surprisingly, the last-place Ducks are within striking distance of the Pacific Division leaders.

Dusting off the Blackhawks wasn’t much of a feat, but it was the Ducks’ 16th victory and 37th point.

The Ducks (16-13-4-1) are three points behind division-leading San Jose, two behind Phoenix and the Kings and tied with Dallas in the NHL’s most competitive division.

Goalie Guy Hebert stopped 21 shots and earned his third shutout this season and the 25th of his career. Defensemen Niclas Havelid and Ruslan Salei scored 1:59 apart in the second period for the Ducks.

Meanwhile, Chicago gave itself another black eye while attempting to give the Ducks one. Or five or six.

The Ducks gave about as good as they got, but two questionable hits by Chicago winger Tony Amonte will probably get a good look from NHL punishment czar Colin Campbell.

“I don’t send in tapes [to the league office],” said Pierre Gauthier, Duck president and general manager.

However, Gauthier paid Bryan Lewis, NHL supervisor of officials, a postgame visit. And it’s a good bet it wasn’t to give him a copy of a “Toy Story 2” as a Christmas present.

What had the Ducks hoping for a bit of supplementary discipline were a pair of hits Amonte delivered--one on defenseman Pascal Trepanier in the second period and another on captain Paul Kariya in the third.

Trepanier and Amonte collided at center ice, crashing heavily to the ice. Amonte leaped to his skates and delivered a cross check to the head of a prone Trepanier, who left the game and did not return.

Amonte was not penalized. Trepanier had “his bell rung,” according to a team official. His status for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings is uncertain.

Later, after getting cross-checked to the ice from behind by Kariya, Amonte slammed the Duck winger face-first into the glass. Amonte drew a boarding penalty and ignited a scrum that threatened to escalate into a brawl.

“At that time of the game, it was pretty unnecessary,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said of Amonte’s hit, which did not injure Kariya. “They’re probably a frustrated team over there.”

Kariya agreed, saying, “It was just frustration. He was in the slot [moments earlier] and I didn’t hit him hard, but he went down.”

Lorne Molleken, Chicago associate coach, didn’t have much sympathy for Kariya.

“That’s the game of hockey,” said Molleken, who was punched out by Washington Capital General Manager George McPhee after a fight-filled exhibition game in September. “The game got out of hand because the refs didn’t call all the penalties.”

Chicago’s Doug Gilmour took it a step further, saying, “If that’s the way [the Ducks] want to play, we’ll remember it.”

The Ducks’ idea of a payback for Amonte’s hit on Trepanier was to score two quick goals.

First, Havelid put a quick flip from near the left point through traffic and past goaltender Jocelyn Thibault for a 1-0 lead at 12:35 of the second period.

Next, Salei capped a sequence of quick one-touch passing for a power-play goal at 14:34.

“There might have been a time in years past when the Ducks might have been pushed around,” Hartsburg said. “The Ducks didn’t like these kinds of games. But that’s in the past. This group won’t back down.”