Ducks Can’t Even Fight Fluke

Slumped against the wall in the visitors’ locker room at Rexall Place, eyes downcast, Mighty Duck defenseman Keith Carney tried to explain why a team that had so much going for it last season -- a team that made so many of its breaks and thrived under duress -- is going nowhere now.

A pass that Edmonton’s Ethan Moreau flipped to teammate Ales Hemsky deflected off the stick of Duck defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski and put Hemsky in alone against goalie Martin Gerber, an opportunity Hemsky converted at 14:03 of the first period for the only goal in a 1-0 Oiler victory Thursday. It was a fluke. Something that shouldn’t have decided the game.

But it did, leaving the Ducks 0-5-3 since a 3-1 victory Dec. 31 at Carolina. They’re eight points out of the last West playoff spot with 37 games left.

“We outchanced them and outworked them, and most nights you should win when that happens,” Carney said. “I think if we keep playing this way, it’s got to happen, but it’s got to happen soon.”

Despite a decent effort in which they outshot the Oilers, 13-2, in the second period and 28-16 overall, the Ducks are 0-9 at Edmonton since Feb. 21, 1999. They have scored three goals or fewer in 16 of their last 17 games. Their power play is 0 for 17 over the last five games. “It’s not like we don’t have good people getting shots,” Coach Mike Babcock said.

But they rarely tested Tommy Salo on Thursday, and they have been shut out four times in 45 games, compared with five times last season. They are 6-11 in one-goal games, an astonishing reversal for a team that was 24-15 in one-goal games last season and lived off them in the playoffs (12-1).

“This is one of the toughest tests I’ve been through in my career,” said Sergei Fedorov, who had a team-high five shots.

On Tuesday, after being thoroughly outplayed in a 3-1 loss at Colorado, players held an emotional meeting in which they urged each other to step up and take responsibility. Following that with a victory Thursday before a sellout crowd of 16,839 might have given them something to build on, but it didn’t happen -- largely because of an innocuous play in the first period.

Moreau was in the Oilers’ zone when he sent a long lead pass to the speedy Hemsky. Vishnevski tried to bat it down but instead deflected it and fell. Hemsky, on the right wing, finished it off with a shot that beat Gerber to the glove side.

Carney and Fedorov said they thought the play might have been offside, but referees Craig Spada and Don VanMassenhoven disagreed. “Their forward was quicker than our” defense, Fedorov said. “We had a really good shift and they make the pass and that sucks us in.... I thought we had three guys back, but that pass hit our stick and dropped.”

Gerber wasn’t initially worried as the Oilers came up the ice. “It didn’t look dangerous until someone hit it high up in the air, and that made the whole play,” he said. “The puck was rolling, and [Hemsky] just whacked at it and got the edge.

“It was just one of those plays. Most times it misses the net or you save them, but this time it went in.”

It was like so many other misfortunes they have experienced, such as Petr Sykora’s hitting the post early in the second period. However, Fedorov and Carney chose to look at the few positives they could find.

“We’ve got to stick with the attitude and game plan we had,” Fedorov said. “We just have to execute the chances we get.”

Said Carney: “We’re going in the right direction. It’s just a matter of not accepting what’s happening and knowing it’s not good enough and that we need to win hockey games.... We’ve got to stick with the plan.”