Kings’ Losses Multiply, 2-1

The race is on.

No, not the battle for Southland hockey supremacy. The Mighty Ducks continued to rule the Kings with an iron fist during a 2-1 victory Wednesday before a sellout crowd of 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond.

The race in question is for fourth place in the Western Conference. Once facing a double-digit deficit against the Phoenix Coyotes, the Ducks find themselves only five points behind this morning.

Funny what a five-game winning streak will do for one team.

And what eight losses in nine games with do for another.

But a definite battle for fourth place and home-ice advantage has begun between the torrid Ducks and flailing Coyotes.

Only last month Coach Craig Hartsburg was saying the Ducks should aim for fifth place because that seemed to be a reasonable goal. Now, fourth doesn’t seem farfetched.

“This reminds me a lot of two years ago when we made the playoffs,” goaltender Guy Hebert said after the Ducks’ fourth victory this season over the Kings. “In February and March [of 1997], we made up a lot of ground. Now, we have Phoenix not too far ahead of us. It’s nice to have that carrot dangling there.”

Certainly, Wednesday’s victory won’t go down as the Ducks’ finest performance of the season. They were outplayed for long stretches and forced to rely on Hebert to bail them out too often.

Hebert made 33 saves as the Ducks were outshot, 34-14.

“We were fortunate our goaltender was more prepared to play than the rest of us,” Hartsburg said. “He was unbelievable. He won the game for us. He was by far the best player on the ice for both clubs.”

Right wing Teemu Selanne and center Matt Cullen scored for the Ducks. Defenseman Rob Blake had the lone King goal.

“I can’t say we played very well tonight,” said Selanne, who extended his point streak to 14 games and his goal-scoring streak to seven. “It was one of those nights where we have to give a better effort. That’s why ‘Guybo’ was so important for us tonight.”

Said King Coach Larry Robinson: “We played great. The difference was Hebert.”

At this point, the Ducks will gladly accept a lackluster victory and move on. They have bigger concerns just ahead, starting with Friday’s game against the Nashville Predators.

Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings figures to be a better test, particularly since it’s the Ducks’ first against a .500 team since defeating the Coyotes, 5-1, Feb. 14 at Phoenix.

The Red Wings are a mere three points ahead of the Ducks and will be without center Sergei Fedorov, who was suspended Wednesday for five games for a slashing incident last week against the New York Islanders.

To be sure, the Ducks will have to clean up their act between today and Sunday. But a victory Friday against Nashville will equal the franchise-best six-game winning streak, set in March, 1996.

“We’re very fortunate to get two points and we’re moving on with a better attitude and focus for Friday night,” Hartsburg said.

The Ducks appeared to have Wednesday’s game in control, holding a 2-0 lead late in the second period.

But they lost track of Blake, who might or might not have been a full stride offside when he accepted a lead pass from Jozef Stumpel and whistled a slap shot past Hebert and into the net at 13:32.

Either way, Blake breathed some much-needed life into the Kings with his seventh goal of the season.

After all, the Kings made a shambles of their enormous advantage in shots on net. Their power play was useless and they sputtered just as badly when skating five on five.

But the Kings managed to win a few key battles in the neutral zone and kept buzzing the Duck net.

The Ducks hardly made King goalie Stephane Fiset sweat at the other end of the ice, putting limited pressure on him.

The Ducks were outshot, 26-9, after 40 minutes, but the Kings relaxed for a moment at the worst possible time early in the second period.

That’s when Selanne pounced on a loose puck at the blue line, split the defense, slipped a pass to Travis Green on right wing, accepted a return feed and tipped the puck into the net.

Selanne’s power-play goal, his team-leading 35th overall, gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead at 5:12.