Ducks’ Ignoble Title: Worst in West

Last at last.

The Mighty Ducks completed their six-week free-fall to the bottom of the Western Conference standings with an all-too-predictable 2-1 loss Saturday to the Columbus Blue Jackets before a sellout crowd of 18,136 at Nationwide Arena.

“It’s an embarrassment,” team captain Paul Kariya said after the Ducks plummeted into 15th place in the conference with their fifth consecutive loss and 14th defeat in the last 18 games.

“It’s an embarrassment for the team, for myself and everybody involved. The talent on this team is not producing the way it has to. We’ve got to turn it around. We have to focus on getting better and learning what we’re doing wrong out there. Game in and game out, we’re not learning.”

In other words, don’t bet the family SUV on any sort of a rally in the season’s remaining 29 games. During this wretched streak, the Ducks have proved nothing more than having a keen sense of what it takes to lose in all manner of situations.

Close games, routs--it doesn’t seem to matter to the Ducks, who have another, more significant milestone to reach before the regular season ends April 8. They still can drop to last place overall in the NHL.

Currently, the Ducks, who have 40 points, lead only the Florida Panthers by three points, the Tampa Bay Lightning by six and the New York Islanders by seven.

The Ducks are a combined 4-0 against the dregs of the Eastern Conference, which could eventually cost them a shot at the top pick in the June draft.

Asked if he realized his team was now last in the West, a grim-faced Coach Guy Charron said, “Yep.” Asked if he could have imagined a team with Kariya and Teemu Selanne would be last, he added, “Probably not.”

But there you have it, hockey fans.

As in Friday’s loss to the Detroit Red Wings, a young defenseman took a needless third-period penalty, which led to the go-ahead power-play goal for the opposition.

Friday, Vitaly Vishnevski was whistled for roughing and Sergei Fedorov scored the game-winner in a 3-2 Red Wing victory. Saturday, rookie Antti-Jussi Niemi went to the penalty box for elbowing, setting up the second of two third-period goals by Geoff Sanderson.

Just like that the Ducks dropped to last and the Blue Jackets moved into 14th place.

“Maybe you have to hit rock bottom before you can begin to climb up,” Charron said. “It’s very difficult to find positives right now. [But] the only way to go now is up.”

Thanks to rookie center Marc Chouinard’s first NHL goal only 4:11 into the game and standout goaltending by Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the Ducks seemed headed toward a victory Saturday.

The Ducks couldn’t pad their lead in the second period, however. Petr Tenkrat missed an open net. Dan Bylsma hit the left goal post. A pass from Kariya to Tony Hrkac for an easy tap-in near the right post struck a diving Blue Jacket instead.

Only 1:29 into the third, Sanderson scored the tying goal by slamming a rebound past Giguere. Sanderson then blasted a shot from near the blue line through traffic and past Giguere for the go-ahead goal at the 7:55 mark.

Kariya had Columbus goalie Ron Tugnutt, a former Duck, out of position on a charge down the left flank late in the game. But as Kariya released the shot, defenseman Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre slashed him on the arm and the shot missed the mark. Grand-Pierre was penalized, but the Ducks failed to click on their fifth and final chance with the man advantage and the gamble paid off for the Blue Jackets.

The Ducks again played without injured forwards Mike Leclerc (knee), Marty McInnis (groin) and Steve Rucchin (concussion) and defensemen Niclas Havelid (season-ending knee surgery) and Ruslan Salei (concussion). But there’s more to the Ducks’ troubles than injuries, according to Kariya.

“We’re finding ways to lose games,” he said after he was blanked in his second game since returning to the lineup from a 16-game absence because of a broken right foot.

“It’s really frustrating.”