Effort Is There, Victory Will Follow

The Mighty Ducks have lost three in a row, matching their longest losing streak of the season. But they haven’t played like a team in a slump in their last two games--a 5-4 defeat Friday against the Dallas Stars and a 3-1 loss Wednesday to the Calgary Flames.

The Ducks outshot Dallas, 27-17, and Calgary, 33-20. However, the Ducks gave up three power-play goals against the Stars and two against the Flames. The Ducks haven’t scored a power-play goal in four games.

“The only point on our trip we didn’t like was the first period against Edmonton,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said, referring to the Ducks’ sluggish start en route to a 4-1 loss Dec. 27 to the Oilers.

Despite the losses, Hartsburg praised the Ducks for their efforts. He said he was particularly pleased with his team’s intensity in the loss to Dallas.

“There’s not much to say other than we played our butts off,” he said. “We deserved a lot more than we got. I’m extremely proud of how hard we played. It’s important for us to stick with it. We can’t back off and fall into that trap.”

The Ducks are off until Wednesday, when they play host to Pavel Bure and the Florida Panthers.

“There’s no doubt in my mind the team is going in the right direction,” Hartsburg said. “If we keep working that hard we’re going to be rewarded.”

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Teemu Selanne, on the competition in the Western Conference:

“It’s unbelievable. If somebody told us before the season that it would be this tight and 10 teams would be around the .500 mark or better, we would have said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’

“Which is great.”

Only Chicago, Nashville and Vancouver would appear to be out of playoff contention as the season nears the midway point.