Ducks are tripped up

A start to the season that set a league mark and the best record in the NHL might make you a target, but the Ducks aren’t the only team faced with that predicament.

As defending Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes know the feeling of being hunted. The Ducks want their trophy and are considered a favorite to hoist it, but the Hurricanes showed they aren’t about to give it up easily.

Taking advantage of an injury-riddled Ducks team Friday night, the line of Rod Brind’Amour, Ray Whitney and Justin Williams figured in all but one goal of Carolina’s 4-2 victory at the RBC Center.

Brind’Amour and Williams scored less than 2 1/2 minutes apart in the second period to rally the Hurricanes. Whitney also had a goal and two assists as the trio combined for seven points.

Erik Cole finished off the Ducks with an empty-net goal in the third.

“They’re a good group of hockey players,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “The success that they’ve had individually is not a secret. They’re a good team.”

The Ducks (28-6-6) still lead the NHL with 62 points, but they ran into a Carolina team that had something to prove after losing, 4-1, on Thursday to the Eastern Conference-leading Buffalo Sabres.

They also caught the Hurricanes on a night when they honored captain Brind’Amour for reaching 1,000 points in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 18,790.

“It was a big night for them,” Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said. “Both teams wanted to see how they matched up with one another.”

The Ducks started Michael Wall in goal because Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Ilya Bryzgalov have groin injuries.

Giguere is in Anaheim, and Bryzgalov was activated from injured reserve but couldn’t go after participating in the morning skate.

Wall played well in only his second NHL start. The 21-year-old made several key stops early to keep the Ducks close and made 23 saves in all.

“He played great,” Pronger said. “In that first period, we didn’t give him a whole lot of help. He came up with some big stops for us to keep it at 1-0. In the second and third, he held his ground and really played well.”

Said Carlyle: “It’s a big step for a young goaltender to step in and play. He made some key stops for us.”

Teemu Selanne scored goals 2:41 apart in the second on slap shots that beat Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward to give the Ducks a short-lived 2-1 lead.

Brind’Amour tied it 1:09 later with a power-play goal on a deflection of a shot by Whitney.

Williams put them ahead for good when he banged a loose puck in the slot after miscommunication by the Ducks’ Andy McDonald and Sean O’Donnell in the neutral zone allowed Carolina to gain possession.

“I think we were negligent in a couple of instances,” Carlyle said. “We turned the puck over at the offensive blue line, and it led to an offensive attack for them.”

Injuries continue to pile up. Defenseman Francois Beauchemin will be out until February because of a ruptured spleen, and center Todd Marchant is on injured reserve because of a strained abdominal muscle.

It won’t get any easier on this trip as the Ducks travel to Minnesota and Detroit.

“Everybody has to be that much better. Everybody’s got to improve their game,” forward Dustin Penner said.

eric.stephens@latimes.com