Ducks Waste a Quality Start

Perhaps it was too easy. Yeah, that was probably the answer.

The Mighty Ducks toyed with the Calgary Flames for 20 minutes Friday, looking like a kitten batting around a ball of yarn.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the inevitable runaway--the yarn fought back.

Fact is, Calgary overwhelmed the Ducks for long stretches in the second and third periods and rallied for a 2-2 tie. Only strong penalty killing and goaltending kept the Flames from taking a victory from the Ducks before a sellout crowd of 17,139 at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

The Ducks did as they pleased with the Flames in the first period, but couldn’t score more than once and paid the price. Still, the Ducks are 2-1-1 in four games since ending a 0-6-2 winless streak that sent them reeling to the bottom of the Pacific Division standings.

“We had a 10- to 12-minute lapse in the second period that cost us the game,” said captain Paul Kariya, who put the Ducks ahead, 1-0, with a power-play goal 8:01 into the game. “You can talk about lucky bounces or whatever, but they were coming at us. They had a lot of chances.”

It was the Ducks who had the Flames on the run after the first period, outshooting them, 11-4. But all the Ducks had to show for their dominance was Kariya’s goal off a fat rebound Calgary goalie Fred Brathwaite left near the right goal post.

The fortunate bounce Kariya spoke of helped Calgary, on a six-game winless streak, get back into the game.

Toni Lydman’s dump-in seemed harmless enough. But the puck took a left turn off the end boards, hopped past goalie Dominic Roussel’s stick and went to an unchecked Oleg Saprykin, who slammed it into the back of the net for a 1-1 tie 4:03 into the second period.

“When they chip in a goal, I’ve noticed they get a lot of energy and life,” Duck winger Mike Leclerc said.

The Flames’ energy surge lasted longer than the tie, however. Leclerc, who assisted on Kariya’s goal, pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired it past Brathwaite for a 2-1 lead at 11:49 of the second.

With the teams skating four on four after coincidental minors to the Ducks’ Ruslan Salei and Calgary’s Jeff Shantz, Jarome Iginla skated out of the right-hand corner and scored 48 seconds after Leclerc’s goal. Roussel made the initial save, but Iginla swatted home the rebound.

Neither team could break the tie, although the Flames had several opportunities but failed to put another puck behind Roussel. Calgary’s best chance came during a lengthy flurry that included no fewer than four terrific chances. Teemu Selanne and Niclas Havelid alertly stopped shots when Roussel was out of position after making critical first stops.

In overtime, Leclerc rang a quick shot from the right wing off the left goal post with less than a minute left.

“It would have been nice,” said Leclerc, who is tied with Kariya and Selanne for the team lead with 21 points. “I think I caught [Brathwaite] moving out. There was some room there.”

Leclerc got nothing but iron, however.

At that point, a victory would have been too much to ask for by the Ducks. After all, they were outshot, 23-12, over the second and third periods plus the five-minute overtime.

“We had a good start, but about halfway through the second period we started to turn over too many pucks and didn’t drive the puck up ice the way we had been,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said.

Hartsburg refused to pin the change in the Ducks’ play on the odd bounces that led to Saprykin’s goal, however.

“Those are the breaks of the game,” he said. “They did get some momentum after it. I thought early in the third period, we took it back. But it was a battle.”

Standout penalty killing after Dan Bylsma took a high-sticking penalty with 4:09 left in the third helped the Ducks eke out a tie. They gave up only three shots, including two while Bylsma was in the penalty box, while blanking Calgary in five short-handed situations.

“The penalty killers were very good,” Hartsburg said. “Dom was the key to that in the third period. The penalty killers didn’t give them too much until the third.”