Ducks Give Mighty Effort but Get Only Style Points

The Mighty Ducks’ confounding 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Saturday could be best summed up in two words: “That’s hockey.”

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it in three words: “That’s Duck hockey.”

The Ducks seemed to do everything but win the game, taking small victories all over the SkyReach Centre ice. They outshot the Oilers, 32-18. They outhit them, 25-18. They blanked them on three power plays. And they also won battle after battle for loose pucks along the boards and in open ice.

“It was very frustrating,” winger Teemu Selanne said. “I can’t say those guys were better than we were. No way. This game should have been ours. The effort was there. The guys played hard.”

But the Ducks simply couldn’t find a way to sneak more than two pucks past Edmonton goaltender Tommy Salo, who was easily the best player on the ice.

Anson Carter scored twice and Doug Weight also scored for Edmonton, which had only one or two other quality scoring chances against Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

A poor clearing pass from Duck winger Jim Cummins set up Carter’s first goal. Giguere had no chance to stop Carter, who swept in alone from the left wing to score 6:08 into the game.

Less than four minutes later, Weight accepted a lead pass from Carter at the attacking blue line and raced past the Duck defense to beat Giguere and give the Oilers a 2-0 lead.

Edmonton spent much of the rest of the game trying to keep the Ducks from overwhelming Salo, so there really wasn’t sufficient time left for Oiler scoring chances. By game’s end, the puck was in the Oilers’ end of the ice more than three minutes longer than it was in the Ducks’ end.

“We had great chances,” Selanne said. “It was just bad luck. Somehow we were always hitting [Salo]. We had a lot of quality shots. Plus, we had lots of great rebounds.”

Never was that more true than during a two-man advantage early in the game. The Ducks swarmed Salo’s net, but not one of the Ducks’ six power-play shots got through.

Carter scored for the Oilers moments after the Ducks’ power play ended.

Tony Hrkac’s goal, on a pinball shot from the right faceoff circle off the skate of Edmonton’s Sean Brown, narrowed the Ducks’ deficit to 2-1 only 5:23 into the second period. But Carter’s second goal of the game, on a quick shot from the right wing in the dying moments of the period, put the Oilers ahead by two again.

Defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky’s power-play goal at 5:34 of the final period gave the Ducks hope, but they couldn’t find a way to crack Salo in the closing minutes.

For instance, Salo gloved Selanne’s wicked slap shot off a drop pass from Ladislav Kohn as the two moved swiftly over the blue line at the 11:21 mark.

And there was more.

About a minute later, Salo managed to get in front of Mike Leclerc’s tricky shot from the slot after a pretty feed from Tverdovsky.

Stationed in the slot, Matt Cullen accepted a centering pass from Selanne on left wing and blasted the puck off Salo with 1:15 left. Tverdovsky’s rebound try failed to click.

After calling a timeout with 28 seconds left, the Ducks failed to get another shot on net with Giguere on the bench in favor of a sixth attacker.

“Sometimes this game is very cruel,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said after the Ducks, last in the Pacific Division, fell to 8-11-4-2 for 22 points.

“You’ve got to feel something good is about to happen,” Hartsburg added. “You can feel the energy from our team. There were a lot of positive feelings tonight. There were a lot of positive signs.”

However, if the Ducks play just well enough to lose by a goal night after night, won’t that soon take a dramatic toll on the team’s fragile state of mind?

“I can’t see that as an option,” Selanne said when asked about a possible letdown. “The leaders have to step up. It’s going to happen. We’re just this close. I have a really good feeling about this team even though it’s really frustrating right now. We have to keep pushing and good things will happen.”