Ducks Falling a Little Short

The Mighty Ducks rediscovered some, but certainly not all of their game Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche. Now if they could only rediscover how to win.

On another night, against another opponent, the Ducks might have been good enough to eke out a victory. But against the league-leading Avalanche, the Ducks lost two significant battles along the boards and ended up with a 3-1 loss before a sellout crowd of 18,007 at the Pepsi Center.

In the end, the little things added up to another big headache for the slumping Ducks, 0-4-2 since a 6-3 victory Oct. 29 against the Calgary Flames. Colorado is 12-2-3 for a league-leading 27 points.

“It’s not Xs and O’s,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “We lost battles. Basically, it comes down to you against me. Who wants the puck?”

At least twice Saturday the answer was Colorado.

First, Alex Tanguay outmuscled Duck defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky for a loose puck in the right corner, fed a centering pass to Joe Sakic, who was stopped on a point-blank try by Dominic Roussel. An alert Ray Bourque, pinching in from the left point, pounced on the rebound and beat Roussel on the glove side to tie the score, 1-1, 4:19 into the second period.

Next, Sakic, Eric Messier and Shjon Podein outworked the Ducks along the boards, maintaining possession of the puck and setting up the go-ahead goal 2:29 into the third period. Sakic slipped a pass from behind the net to Podein, who tapped the puck behind Roussel.

Milan Hejduk scored a third goal with 1:57 left, capping a three-on-one break after Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei lost his balance and the puck in the neutral zone.

To be sure, there were other breakdowns, starting with the Ducks’ powerless power play. They failed to click on three chances with the man advantage, extending their power-play drought to 0 for 20.

“We have to find a way to score some goals on the power play,” Tverdovsky said. “It’s killing us right now. We’ve got to shoot the puck more. We’re trying to force the puck down low instead of simplifying things and getting some shots and going after the rebounds.”

Ahead, 1-0, after Salei’s flip from the top of the right faceoff circle slipped through traffic and eluded Colorado goalie David Aebischer two minutes into the game, the Ducks squandered a terrific chance to pad their lead.

Colorado defenseman Adam Foote took a holding penalty against Teemu Selanne, then picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for arguing the call at the 13:09 mark.

Four minutes and two shots later, the score was still 1-0, and the Avalanche had gained a healthy shot of momentum. Colorado wouldn’t take advantage until Bourque’s goal moments after Duck center Steve Rucchin failed to score on a short-handed rush with Paul Kariya, however.

Roussel made a terrific save to deny a hard-charging Sakic, one of 23 he made in his seventh appearance this season. But Bourque appeared at the last instant to send the rebound between Roussel and the left goal post.

“It was a pretty good shot,” Roussel said. “I got my pad over in time, but I couldn’t reach the shot with my blocker.”

The Ducks left Roussel to fend for himself on Podein’s go-ahead goal. Sakic somehow sneaked his pass to a cutting Podein by Roussel’s poke check. “I thought I could get that pass for sure,” Roussel said. “I just missed it.”

After a credible start in which they led the Avalanche by a goal, the Ducks “let up” in the second, according to Kariya. “The first period we did a lot of good things,” he said. “We got the puck in deep and had a lot of scoring chances.”

Colorado took control in the second when Coach Bob Hartley began to play Bourque and Foote against the Kariya-Rucchin-Selanne line every chance he could.

Kariya had five shots on net in the first period, but was blanked the rest of the way.

“We didn’t give them much,” Bourque said. “We shut down Kariya and Selanne. We did a good job of keeping them off the board and that certainly helps your chances to win.”