Ducks Offer Little Resistance to Wild

Add the Minnesota Wild to a growing list of teams taking advantage of the Mighty Ducks’ woeful special teams.

Nothing was special about any part of the Ducks’ effort Sunday night as they offered little resistance in a 4-1 loss at the Xcel Energy Center to open a three-game trip.

The glaring weaknesses have included an ailing power play or shaky penalty killing, important things the Ducks still haven’t found an answer to five games into the season. They paid dearly against a team that is excelling at both.

Minnesota has converted a league-leading 33.3% of its chances as Brian Rolston and Filip Kuba scored on each of the Wild’s first two power plays to jump out to a 2-0 lead.

“The frustrating part is I thought we had a decent enough start,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Two penalties and then we’re pulling the puck out of the back of our net.”

Against the Wild and its defense-minded coach, Jacques Lemaire, the lead may as well have been twice that number. Manny Fernandez made 28 saves against the Ducks, who were without center Sergei Fedorov and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh for the second consecutive game.

“You’re not going to win a game like that giving up two quick goals to them like we did,” defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. “Our penalty killing doesn’t seem to get the job done when we need it. It’s a big difference when playing a team like that.”

The Ducks mounted little offense until putting 17 shots on Fernandez in the third period. Bruno St. Jacques, whom they acquired in a trade Oct. 3 and recalled from the minors Saturday night, provided the only highlight when he spoiled Fernandez’s shutout bid with 13.5 seconds left.

The Ducks came up empty in seven power plays Sunday and are three for 32 in their first five games.

Forward Teemu Selanne said the team may be trying to do too much when it has the advantage.

“You start forcing some things,” he said. “We just have to do normal things and stick with our plan.”

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Ozolinsh said he’s recovering from the flu symptoms that bothered him the last few days, but it was a strained chest muscle that kept him out of the lineup Sunday. Fedorov also skated but his injured left groin hasn’t shown rapid improvement.