Even Columbus Can Sail Past the Ducks

Worse than the worst. Again.

The Mighty Ducks certainly have found their level. It’s beneath Columbus.

The Blue Jackets came away with a 3-2 victory in front of an announced 9,629 at the Arrowhead Pond, where it was business as usual Friday night.

Columbus, an expansion team in 2000-2001, has won five of six games from the Ducks, whose only victory over the Blue Jackets was in overtime.

“It’s is disappointing, it’s frustrating, it’s all those words,” Anaheim Coach Bryan Murray said. “This seems like a recording. It’s tough to go in the dressing room and talk to the guys who played hard and are not getting rewarded at all. I’m a big boy. I can get out of bed tomorrow and move on. It has to be frustrating for them.”

The Ducks have had that sinking feeling before against Columbus.

The Blue Jackets began the game last in the Western Conference, two points behind the Ducks, and last among conference teams with 58 goals. They had been shutout seven times.

Fodder for a Duck team that had played a smidgen better in the last two weeks. None of it mattered.

Tyler Wright had a goal and two assists. Ray Whitney and Mattias Timander each had goals. Goalie Marc Denis came up big, making 12 saves in the third period when the Ducks controlled play.

“I just don’t know why we have to get down, 3-0, to play that way,” Murray said. “We did everything we needed to do.”

Except score. Denis, who made 35 saves, saw to that. He took a Paul Kariya slap shot off his mask four minutes into the third period. Moments later he stoned Kariya on a point-blank back-hander.

Kariya set up Samuel Pahlsson with a perfect pass with eight minutes left. Denis smothered Pahlsson’s one-timer.

“I got out-played by the other goalie,” the Ducks’ Steve Shields said. “That doesn’t happen very often. I got to come up with the big saves when we need them. I take responsibility for this game. I owe the team a big win.”

Shields’ flaw was giving up the first goal, when a seemingly harmless shot by Wright found its way through his pads 11 minutes into the game

The Blue Jackets got two more by outworking the Ducks.

Timander crashed the net, took a cross-ice pass from Whitney, then faked Shields to his knees before flicking in a backhand shot. In the second period, Espen Knutsen won a battle along the boards at the blue line, then zinged a pass to Whitney, who burst in alone. Shields stopped the first shot, but Whitney knocked in the rebound for a 3-0 lead.

“We can’t go down 3-0,” Kariya said. “We talked before the game about defense first.”

Three goals were enough against a Duck team lacking scorers. Anaheim’s scoreless streak was extended to 153 minutes 12 seconds before Keith Carney’s wrist shot was redirected by Columbus’ Mike Sillinger for a goal.

The Ducks have 13 goals in their last seven games.

“We have guys on this team who have to score goals,” Murray said.

Carney, the team’s best defenseman, isn’t among them. He was returning to lineup after missing 17 games because of a broken bone in his right hand. He scored his first goal in 34 games to cut Columbus’ lead to 3-1 at 15:56 into the second period.

Said Murray: “Carney played better than half the guys on the team and he has been out five weeks.”