Special Teams Create Gloom

Five games, 21 chances on the power play, zero goals for the Mighty Ducks, who last season led the NHL with a 22% success rate with the man advantage.

Three games, 19 short-handed situations, seven power-play goals for the opposition.

Is it any wonder the Ducks have a four-game losing streak? Their special-teams play has been terrible.

“We have been talking all year about how we have to be a better team,” Teemu Selanne said after the Ducks’ 5-1 loss Wednesday to the Florida Panthers. “It’s been too much up and down. That’s been a big problem here for so many years. We have to find a way to turn it around.

“And our special teams are going to do it for us. The power play has never been a problem. We’re going to have to learn. We have to keep working and get it going somehow.

“One of the things about getting your special teams better is you don’t take penalties.”

The Ducks took three minor penalties in the first 10:43 of Wednesday’s loss and paid the price by giving up two power-play goals to Florida’s Viktor Kozlov.

“We’ve taken too many penalties the last two games,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “We can talk about the refs all we want, but we have to look in the mirror at some point.”

*

Hartsburg wasn’t certain whether Guy Hebert or Dominic Roussel will start in goal tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes or Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings.

Hebert was yanked from Wednesday’s loss after giving up three goals on nine shots. Roussel stopped 19 of 21 shots in relief of Hebert in the second and third periods.

TONIGHT

at Carolina

4:30 PST, ESPN2

* Site--Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena, Raleigh, N.C.

* Radio--XTRA (690).

* Records--Ducks 18-18-4-1, Hurricanes 16-17-7-0.

* Record vs. Hurricanes (1998-99)--1-1.

* Update--Like the Ducks, the Hurricanes are having attendance problems. Peter Karmanos, the team’s owner, told a Raleigh reporter he will slash ticket prices next season. The Hurricanes drew a season-low crowd of 7,848 for Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Center Keith Primeau remains unsigned, seeking a four-year, $17-million contract. Carolina has offered a five-year, $20-million deal. The Hurricanes almost completed a trade last week to send Primeau to the Phoenix Coyotes for Keith Tkachuk, but Karmanos nixed the deal.