Ducks Pay the Penalty in 5-3 Loss to the Stars

Hold off on anointing the Mighty Ducks as an elite team.

Their swift ascent in the Western Conference was met with a retort by the Dallas Stars, who set back the hard-charging Ducks with a 5-3 victory at the Arrowhead Pond on Thursday night.

The victory enabled the Stars to win the Pacific Division title, their seventh divisional title in the last nine seasons -- five of them coming in the Pacific. Dallas will be no worse than the second-seeded team in the West when the Stanley Cup playoffs begin.

“Everybody has expectations of playing in the Stanley Cup,” Dallas Coach Dave Tippett said. “That’s what everybody talks about. But you can’t win the Stanley Cup unless you make the playoffs and in the playoffs, you want to give yourself every opportunity to be successful.

“Home ice is one of those advantages. We feel it’s worth the effort to win the division.”

Niko Kapanen scored two goals, including one into the empty net with 39 seconds remaining to fend off a third-period blitz by the Ducks.

Marty Turco made 15 of his 32 saves in the period as the Ducks (40-24-12) lost in regulation for only the fifth time in 19 games since the Olympic break. They are four points behind Nashville in the battle for fourth place in the West.

“In reality, we didn’t expect to win every game from here until the end of the season,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Yeah, we wanted to but in reality that’s not something you plan on.

“They’re a good hockey club. We’re going against a first-place team.”

The Ducks have had their share of comeback victories in recent weeks and it appeared they were headed for another as they put relentless pressure on Turco.

The veteran goaltender was up to the challenge as he made several key saves and escaped when the Ducks missed wide on several scoring chances.

“We had our chances to win the hockey game,” Andy McDonald said.

“I thought we tested Turco and he made some big saves. I think we did everything we wanted to do except score.”

But for all their success since the break -- or even the last four months -- the Ducks continue to make repeated visits to the penalty box.

This time the Ducks took nine minors and gave up seven power plays. It was a matter of time before they paid for their sins.

With the Ducks holding a 2-1 lead, Rob Niedermayer and Scott Niedermayer drew hooking penalties 32 seconds apart early in the second period. Jussi Jokinen scored on the resulting five-on-three to tie the score and Antti Miettinen followed with another power-play goal.

“We had the momentum before and the penalties just gave them all the momentum,” Rob Niedermayer said. “It gave them the lead and we couldn’t come back from that. You can’t do that with the power play they have.”

The line of Miettinen, Kapanen and Niklas Hagman continued to hurt the Ducks as Hagman scored a short-handed goal and helped set up Kapanen’s first score on a two-on-one rush with Stu Barnes.

The Ducks started fast as Rob Niedermayer got his first goal in 14 games and McDonald scored on the power play. It was McDonald’s 30th goal. Joffrey Lupul cut the Stars’ lead to one late in the second with his second goal in two games but that would be it.