Ducks Find Some Scoring but Can’t Avoid Deadlock

The Mighty Ducks’ high-tempo, hard-nosed disciplined game went missing again Wednesday night at the Arrowhead Pond.

So they resorted to scratching, clawing and hanging on for dear life against the Eastern Conference-leading Ottawa Senators before an announced crowd of 16,026.

It wasn’t much to look at, but the Ducks escaped with a 2-2 tie that ended their two-game losing streak and kept them within striking distance of the fourth-place Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference.

The Ducks were outshot, outhit and outskated for most of the second and third periods after taking a two-goal lead 2:19 into the second.

When all else failed, the Ducks turned to goaltender Guy Hebert for help in preserving a tie that kept them winless in their last four. However, they are 6-0-3 in their last nine against Ottawa.

And they trail the Coyotes by six points in the fight for home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Hebert made 41 saves.

Marty McInnis almost made him a winner with 2:15 left in regulation, but couldn’t squeeze the puck by Ottawa goalie Damian Rhodes after slipping behind the Senators’ defense.

Ottawa right wing Marian Hossa had the best chance to break the deadlock in overtime, but Hebert smothered his point-blank try at the right goal post.

In the end, the Senators hardly resembled the team that fumbled and stumbled its way through an emotionless 4-0 loss Monday to the Kings.

Monday, the Senators seemed to be skating through waist-deep mud.

Wednesday, they rocketed around the Ducks almost at will at times in the second period. Of course, that was after another plodding start.

The Ducks had a 2-0 lead 2:19 into the second period, thanks to goals by defenseman Pascal Trepanier and center Matt Cullen.

Instead of folding as they did after falling behind the Kings, the Senators rallied. They were steady and certain in their attacks on Hebert’s net, waiting for an opening.

When a crack finally emerged, center Alexei Yashin slipped the puck through Hebert’s legs from a bad angle for a power-play goal at 12:41 of the second period.

The goal was Yashin’s league-leading 39th of the season.

Hossa then scored the tying goal at 17:47, moving around Cullen with ease to deliver a quick shot past Hebert.

By the end of the second period, Ottawa had outshot the Ducks, 23-11, and bumped them and bruised them.

Certainly, some of the Senators’ could easily have been whistled for penalties by referee Dennis LaRue. But LaRue refused to call it close, angering the Duck bench at several points during the second period.

Until the Senators got rolling late in the second period, the Ducks appeared to have shaken whatever ailed them during losses last week to Phoenix and Dallas that ended their eight-game unbeaten streak.

The Ducks skated with intensity and their execution was sound.

McInnis won a faceoff against Yashin, sending the puck to the right point for Trepanier, who whistled a shot past Rhodes at 7:08 of the first period.

It was the Ducks’ first goal in a week--dating to the second period of a 4-4 tie against the Vancouver Canucks that ended a franchise-record seven-game winning streak.

The Ducks were shut out, 1-0 Saturday at Phoenix and 4-0 Friday at Dallas.

Cullen then ripped a one-timer from the high slot past Rhodes at 2:19 of the second and the Ducks seemed to have recaptured their winning form.

But the Ducks went flat soon after Cullen’s eighth goal of the season and Ottawa happily capitalized to tie the score heading into the third period.

And that was more bad news for the Ducks, whose deficit against the Coyotes swelled to seven points minutes before the opening faceoff at the Pond.

The Coyotes seemed destined for nothing better than a tie as the final minutes of regulation ticked past in their game Wednesday against the Detroit Red Wings.

But Keith Tkachuk, left alone in front of the Red Wing net, scored the game-winner with one second left and Phoenix rallied for a 4-3 victory at Joe Louis Arena.