Ducks Out of Sight, Earshot, Answers

This was ugly work, so maybe it was a good thing that the remaining Mighty Duck fans could neither watch nor listen to Friday’s game.

Their eyes and ears were spared from experiencing the Ducks’ performance in a 3-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in front of 18,137 at Nationwide Arena.

Serge Aubin’s goal tied the score, 2-2, for Columbus with 10 minutes left. Grant Marshall then redirected a Deron Quint shot for a power-play goal to give the Blue Jackets the lead with five minutes left.

The Ducks let a third-period lead slip away for the third time in the last five games. They have failed to score on 25 consecutive power plays. Hoping to charge into a six-game trip, the Ducks stumbled at the first stop.

“We got to get some wins,” Duck left wing Mike Leclerc said. “I think it’s critical for us to get a couple wins so we don’t fall too far behind the pack here.”

The pack the Ducks are running with is more in the Blue Jacket class. In fact, Friday’s victory left Columbus only a point behind the Ducks in the Western Conference.

This matchup was not TV-worthy, and it wasn’t even on radio. The Ducks’ regular station, XTRA (690), broadcast San Diego State basketball instead, and officials at KDIS (710), which normally would pick up such a game, decided this one wasn’t worth rearranging the station’s schedule.

Viewers and listeners were not cheated out of anything, except some soul searching by the Ducks.

Said defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky: “The question is, do we want to win? Or are we just satisfied to stay in games?”

That question seemed answered by their performance. The Ducks were ragged much of the game and were blanked on eight power plays.

“I thought there could have been three or four more power plays,” Coach Bryan Murray said. “I didn’t say much because [the power play] wasn’t doing anything for us. That’s the difference in the hockey game. That’s why you lose, 3-2, instead of win, 3-2.”

Team captain Paul Kariya found one silver lining: “As bad as we played, we had them 2-1 with 10 [minutes] to go.”

Sergei Krivokrasov flicked in a rebound of his own shot, putting the Ducks ahead, 2-1, five minutes into the third period.

That lead lasted five minutes before Blake Sloan centered a pass to Aubin, who fired a shot past goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere to tie the score. The Blue Jackets, who rank 29th out of 30 teams on the power play, got the game-winner from Marshall with the Ducks’ German Titov in the box for high sticking.

“We’re not playing desperate,” Murray said. “We get ahead and it’s almost like we sit and wait to see what’s going to happen.”

The Ducks played desperately in the final minutes, getting several good chances. Yet, in the end, they let a third-period lead slip away just as they did in recent ties with Calgary and Dallas. This time they didn’t even get a point.

“Good teams win these games,” Giguere said.

It’s a true statement, and the Ducks can draw whatever conclusion from it they like.

“I don’t know the answer,” center Matt Cullen said. “This is unbelievable. It’s like, ‘When is this going to stop?”’

The Ducks’ woes rest mainly with their power play, which rests in peace right now. The Ducks not only had trouble getting shots, they struggled to keep the puck in the Blue Jacket zone.

The Blue Jackets also had four quality scoring chances while short-handed, two on breakaways that Giguere stopped.