Mistakes Deadly to Ducks

Meet the Dallas Stars. Yawn. A look at the standings indicates they are the NHL’s leading team with 61 points. Snore. Snooze.

All the Stars seem to do is win, which they did again Friday by defeating the Mighty Ducks, 3-1, before an announced crowd of 17,150 at the Arrowhead Pond.

“If there’s a team in the league better than that one, I’d hate to see it,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “You certainly have to respect them.”

The Stars have size, speed and experience, but patience might be their finest virtue. It’s not an edge-of-the-seat style of hockey that the Stars play, but make a mistake and they will make you pay.

Make two or three and you’re finished.

Sometimes it’s as dull as West Texas, but the Stars are willing to wait until opponents foul up.

Then, they pounce.

“That team is machine-like,” Hartsburg said. “If you make a mistake they’re going to capitalize. That’s why they’re the best team in the league.”

The Ducks learned that lesson Friday.

Goaltender Guy Hebert gave up a fat rebound, then compounded matters by batting the loose puck to Dallas center Mike Modano, cruising into the slot. Modano’s quick shot eluded Hebert for Dallas’ first goal at 5:27 of the first period.

Next, defenseman Ruslan Salei failed to clear the puck out of the Ducks’ zone. Salei’s pass went to Dallas’ Brett Hull, then to Modano, then to Jere Lehtinen, who whistled it past Hebert for a 2-0 lead at 13:11 of the first.

Finally, Marty McInnis went to the penalty box for interference against Dallas’ Darryl Sydor well behind the play at 19:20 of the first period. Only 1:10 into the second, Modano slipped the puck to Mike Keane, who deposited it behind Hebert for a power-play goal and a 3-0 Dallas lead.

Game over.

“We’ve got to take this game and learn why Dallas is such a good team and use some of the things they do for ourselves,” Hartsburg said after the Ducks’ second consecutive loss. “Tonight, we gave a good effort, but it’s still not enough to beat a team like that.”

At present, the Ducks can only hope and dream they can one day be as efficient as the Stars were in improving their league-best record to 27-7-7 on Friday.

To be sure, the Ducks played with more passion and effort than in Wednesday’s dreary 2-1 loss to the Calgary Flames. But three significant miscues led to Dallas goals, and that was that.

The Ducks had their moments during a spirited first period in which they swarmed Dallas goalie Ed Belfour and hit anything in a Star uniform. But the Ducks still trailed, 2-0, the seventh consecutive game in which they’ve failed to lead after 20 minutes.

“We sort of want to wait and see instead of taking the game to the other team,” captain Paul Kariya said. “You can’t play only one good period against a team like that. I think we were watching too much tonight.”

Hartsburg believed the first period was the Ducks’ best, but Kariya thought otherwise.

“At least we showed up in the third period,” Kariya said after his four-game point streak ended. “It’s inexcusable [to start slowly] against a team like that. You’re not going to win every game, but the effort and execution have got to be there every night.

“We haven’t had that effort enough this year.”

Defenseman Fredrik Olausson ended Belfour’s shutout bid with a power-play goal at 8:50 of the third period, but the Ducks failed to duplicate their remarkable last-minute rally in the Oct. 30 game at Dallas.

The Ducks scored twice with Hebert on the bench in favor of a sixth skater to gain a 3-3 tie in the earlier game. But the Stars were too smart for that this time, muzzling Kariya and Teemu Selanne in the game’s final minutes.

“You’ve got to give credit to the other team,” Hartsburg said of the Stars, who lead the all-time series against the Ducks, 16-6-1. “It was tough to get anything accomplished offensively. [Dallas defensemen Derian] Hatcher and [Richard] Matvichuk made it tough for Paul and Teemu to find space to work.”