Ducks Keep on Taking Their Lumps

The hits kept coming for the Mighty Ducks, who can’t afford to take much more of this.

First, goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere took a shot to the head from Calgary Flame tough guy Krzysztof Oliwa behind the Duck net, where he lost his mask and senses from one wicked elbow that got Oliwa kicked out of the game.

Then, the Ducks took a figurative shot from the remaining Flames, who made the most of their chances during a 5-1 victory Monday in front of an announced 13,146 fans at the Arrowhead Pond, many of whom showered the home team with boos in the closing moments.

The Ducks might have booed themselves, if not for the fact that they believed they had deserved better than a four-goal loss against the Flames. For long stretches in the opening period, the Ducks seemed bent on duplicating the effort and efficiency they displayed during a 2-1 victory Saturday over the Vancouver Canucks.

Sergei Fedorov’s goal gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead by the end of the first period, when they outshot, outhit and outsmarted the Flames. They also had shaken off the sight of their goalie slumped against the boards after Oliwa hit him with an elbow that resulted in a match penalty for a deliberate attempt to injure another player.

“A stupid move by an idiot,” Giguere said.

But the Ducks would have been better off if they had made the Flames pay by scoring on the five-minute power play that ensued. They fired pucks from all angles at goalie Roman Turek but merely padded a shots-on-goal advantage that grew to 20-6 by period’s end.

Calgary scored three times in the second period, the last on Oleg Saprykin’s twice-deflected shot from a sharp angle to Giguere’s left at the 14:23 mark that took the last bit of aggression out of the Ducks. Saprykin’s shot deflected off the stick of Todd Simpson, then ricocheted off the right skate of Ruslan Salei and past Giguere.

The Duck defensemen couldn’t be faulted for their play on the goal, as Simpson correctly charged at Saprykin and Salei stationed himself in front of Giguere to take away passing lanes while he stayed alert for rebounds.

“We can’t seem to get a bounce to go our way,” Giguere said. “But we can’t let that affect us. We’ve done a lot of the right things in the last couple of weeks. At some point, you would think the bounces would go our way.”

Instead, the Ducks remained mired in last place in the Pacific Division and on a 1-6-3 slide since defeating the Carolina Hurricanes on Dec. 31. They also are 0-3-3 in their last six home games, with their playoff chances starting to slip from their grasp.

It wasn’t as if the Ducks lacked for chances Monday. They outshot Calgary, 37-27, led by Vaclav Prospal’s six. Turek had only himself to blame for the one that got past him, inadvertently deflecting Fedorov’s centering pass to Sykora into his own net.

Playing without leading scorer Jarome Iginla, who was sidelined by an ankle injury, the Flames got goals from Saprykin, Toni Lydman, Martin Gelinas, Josh Green and Chris Clark. Craig Conroy had four assists for the Flames, who last scored five goals in a 5-0 victory Jan. 5 against the New York Rangers.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Duck captain Steve Rucchin said. “I really don’t know how to make sense of this game. Do we feel bad about ourselves? We gave up a lot of goals, but the effort was there. It’s tough to figure out this game. Of course it’s disappointing. A loss is a loss, of course, and it hurts.”

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The Ducks recalled left wing Cam Severson from their minor-league affiliate at Cincinnati and sent defenseman Lance Ward there for conditioning. They also announced center Michael Holmqvist will be sidelined for a week because of a strained abdominal muscle.