Ducks Play With Fire and Get Burned, 2-1

Craig Hartsburg had every right to be concerned Wednesday. He warned the Mighty Ducks about the Calgary Flames. He told them the Flames were a desperate team, searching for a win any way they could get one.

So, what happened? All of Hartsburg’s pleading to take the Flames seriously went in one ear and out the other and the Ducks lost, 2-1, at the Arrowhead Pond.

Jarome Iginla scored the go-ahead goal for Calgary at 8:38 of the third period.

Fred Brathwaite, playing only his third NHL game of the season, stopped 31 of 32 shots for the Flames. Brathwaite played 22 games with the Canadian national team before injuries to their top goalies prompted the Flames to sign him Jan. 7.

And the Flames killed off an interference penalty to Todd Simpson with 1:57 left to preserve the victory.

This was not exactly what Hartsburg had in mind as the Ducks reached the midway point of his first season as their coach. But he knew something like this was possible.

After all, he has been the Duck coach now for 41 games and watched them streak and slump--sometimes in the same game. Wednesday, the Ducks dipped below .500 at 16-17-8.

“We’ve made some strides,” Hartsburg said before the game. “We’ve pretty much stayed on course. [But] this is a long ways from being a finished product. We still need to make improvements to our whole game.”

Indeed.

“We need to put ourselves ahead of the pack. We need to put some heat on Phoenix,” Hartsburg said of the Coyotes, fourth in the Western Conference and 11 points ahead of the sixth-place Ducks.

The attendance was a franchise-record low 13,542, perhaps testimony to the lack of appeal of the Flames (14-25-3) to Southland fans.

Those who did show were entertained from start to finish by the Flames’ energetic style and the Ducks’ willingness to tempt fate and forget the game began at 7:40 sharp.

How else to explain the Ducks’ 1-0 deficit midway through the first period?

The Ducks were outshot and outplayed in the first period. They didn’t get their feet moving until the start of the second period, when Hartsburg had his third line of Antti Aalto, Matt Cullen and Johan Davidsson finish up the last 38 seconds of a power play.

It was a clear sign of Hartsburg’s unhappiness with more veteran players such as Paul Kariya, Steve Rucchin and Teemu Selanne.

Finally, Fredrik Olausson countered Jason Wiemer’s first-period goal for Calgary with a power-play goal at 9:10 of the second period. Kariya and Rucchin assisted on Olausson’s third goal in as many games.