Kariya-Less Ducks Let Lead Slip Away Against St. Louis

Get the sign ready to hang on the front door of the Arrowhead Pond:

Gone fishin’.

If this keeps up, that’s where the Mighty Ducks are headed April 10, a day after the regular season ends. Stanley Cup playoff teams simply do not play the way the Ducks did in a 4-2 loss Monday to the St. Louis Blues before an announced crowd of 13,346.

If this was a one-shot deal it would be a minor concern. Squandering two-goal leads late in games has become a central theme to the Ducks’ 1999-2000 season, however.

The Ducks made the Blues, who ended up winning their fourth in a row, look bad for more than 26 minutes Monday. Anaheim built a 2-0 lead on goals from winger Ted Donato and defenseman Ruslan Salei and had all the momentum going their way.

It seemed the Ducks would roll to a victory over the Western Conference-leading Blues without left wing Paul Kariya, who is expected to be out about a week because of a bruised right foot.

But center Matt Cullen was whistled for hooking and everything went south for the Ducks.

Oh, they made it interesting for a while, killing off the penalty to Cullen. But at the 8:28 mark, Marty Reasoner’s tap-in got the Blues started on their second come-from-behind victory over the Ducks in 10 days.

Michal Handzus scored a power-play goal 8:43 into the final period and Al MacInnis put the go-ahead goal past Dominic Roussel at 18:11. Jochen Hecht added an empty-net goal in the final minute.

“I don’t know what the problem in the third period is,” said right wing Teemu Selanne, whose 13-game point streak came to an end. “That has been our nightmare for a while. Same story again. We’re leading after two periods in our own building. No way we should lose.

“Are we afraid to have success?”

It’s not difficult to pinpoint the trouble, according to Selanne.

“We’re not playing the same way we were in the first and second periods,” he said. “We back up. We put the puck in stupid places. [Playing well late in games is] what we have to learn before we become a good team. We’re close, but we’re not that close.”

Fact is, the Ducks play just well enough to lose tight games. They play with speed, skill and smarts to build a solid lead. Instead of turning up the pressure, they fall apart in remarkable fashion.

In addition to the losses to the Blues, the Ducks also let a 3-1 lead slip away in Friday’s 4-4 tie with the San Jose Sharks. They led the Calgary Flames, 4-3, going into the third period, were tied in the final 20 minutes, but won in overtime, 6-5, Feb. 16.

The Ducks also had a 5-1 lead Feb. 8 against the Kings, but needed to scramble in the final period to hold on for a 5-3 victory.

And how about the Ducks’ belly-flop Jan. 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes? Ahead 4-1 entering the third period, the Ducks were tied, 4-4.

In 61 games, the Ducks have been outscored, 67-49, in the third period. In the last five games alone, they have been outscored, 12-4, in the final period.

“We don’t stay assertive enough once we get the lead,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said.

Certainly, the 10th-place Ducks aren’t done yet. With 21 games remaining, they are five points behind the eighth-place Sharks.

But one look at the Ducks’ recent play and there is the unavoidable conclusion that they don’t have what it takes to rally for their third playoff appearance in their seven-season history.

It always seems to be something new with these Ducks.

Against San Jose, a couple of strange bounces led to goals against Guy Hebert as the Sharks rallied with three third-period goals.

Hebert went to the bench in favor of Roussel Monday, but Handzus and MacInnis squeezed third-period laser beams past Roussel.

The Duck power play, which clicked in 10 consecutive games before Monday, failed to contribute a goal against St. Louis. Selanne was blanked for the first time since Jan. 19. Cullen’s penalty and a third-period roughing call against Donato shifted the momentum in St. Louis’ direction.

“We took a bad penalty with 11 minutes to go and it started our downfall,” Hartsburg said. Asked about the call against Cullen, Hartsburg added, “We stayed on the ice too long, got tired and couldn’t skate, so we took a hook.”