Oilers Give Ducks the Third Degree

There were opportunities dangling before the Mighty Ducks all night.

A third-period lead.

A two-man advantage late in the game.

A chance to move up in the standings.

The grim faces reflected how those chances fluttered away in a 2-1 loss to Edmonton Wednesday night. The sellout crowd of 16,839 at SkyReach Centre watched the Oilers snag their opportunities, getting two third-period goals in a two-minute span.

“We need to learn from this right now,” Duck forward Petr Sykora said. “There are a lot of teams that are battling for playoff spots and they win these games. We’re one of the teams fighting for a spot. We need to win games. When we go into the third period with the lead, we need to win the game.”

Sykora, who has been through such playoff runs with New Jersey, wasn’t the only Duck to see the error of their ways. They had found a way to beat Calgary, 3-2, Tuesday. They were 20 minutes from pulling within a point of the fifth-place Oilers and found a way to lose.

It was the second time this season the Ducks have let a lead slip away against the Oilers, who rallied from two goals down for a 4-3 victory on Oct. 26. The Oilers, in fact, have won all three games against the Ducks this season and lead them by five points in the standings.

“We have 29 games left and this was a chance to close the gap,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “You hate to give that one away. Yet we knew going [into the third period] we had a long way to go.”

The journey took some wicked bounces and gave Fernando Pisani and Ales Hemsky a start on 15 minutes of fame.

Pisani pounced on a rebound and fired a shot off Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei and past goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere to tie the score, 1-1, eight minutes into the third period. It was Pisani’s first NHL goal.

Just two minutes later, Duck defenseman Keith Carney couldn’t clear the puck from behind the Duck net. Shawn Horcoff snagged the turnover and centered to Anson Carter. Giguere made the save on Carter’s one-timer, but the puck went straight to Hemsky, who whipped a shot off the Ducks’ Marc Chouinard for the game-winner.

“I went to clear the puck and it bounced straight up and then bounced right to their guy,” Carney said.

The Ducks had the chance to take Carney off the hook. They had a five-on-three advantage for 1:15 with four minutes left. Sykora got off two vicious one-timers, the second was redirected by Steve Rucchin, but goalie Tommy Salo made the saves.

“When you have a chance like that, you got to come up with the tying goal,” Sykora said.

Sykora gave the Ducks the lead midway through the first period off a power-play rush worth replaying. Rucchin entered the zone and left a drop pass for Paul Kariya, who then found Sykora streaking in on the other side. Salo never had a chance.

The Oilers flailed through the first 40 minutes. Twice they thought they had goals, but both times the video judge ruled against them. Ryan Smyth’s first-period shot hit the post and did not cross the line. Eric Brewer’s second-period shot nearly trickled in, but the review showed that Kariya managed to clear the puck in time.

Duck luck began to falter as the second period expired, when Andy McDonald got off a shot that hit the post a second before the buzzer sounded. From that point, it was the Oilers who seized the day, and the two points.

“We had the game in the third period and didn’t win,” Kariya said. “We had the five-on-three and didn’t get the goal. That’s just disappointing.”