It’s Star-Crossed Night for Ducks

Everything changed for the Mighty Ducks against the Dallas Stars on Friday night, and yet nothing changed.

The Ducks hadn’t come close to beating the Stars this season, but there they were with a three-goal lead after one dominating period. The main problem in their 4-3 shootout loss to the Stars in the American Airlines Center was that they realized they had a three-goal lead.

Antti Miettinen gave Dallas its fourth win against the Ducks in as many tries with the deciding goal in the shootout. But Brenden Morrow’s second goal of the game, at 13 minutes 36 seconds of the third period, tied the score, 3-3, and had the Ducks reeling.

“It’s unacceptable,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “We were up 3-0 with a great first period, I thought, and we just let them come back in the game. You can’t do that.”

The Ducks (18-15-7) got a point against a division rival, but there was a clear sense of defeat done largely in a self-inflicted manner. Miettinen started the rally in the second period when he was left alone with plenty of room to put a backhander past Giguere.

“We didn’t play the rush at all right,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We had a defenseman charge all the way across and it shows. They put the puck in the middle and we allow the guy a breakaway from the blue line in.”

The Ducks appeared to survive the mistake and had a chance to break through, but Joffrey Lupul drew a four-minute penalty for high sticking Trevor Daley near the end of the second period.

Morrow turned the game around when he got loose on a breakaway early in the third period and scored a short-handed goal before tying it when he banged in a rebound as the Stars carried the action for much of the period.

“We turn the puck over on a power play and give up a short-handed goal,” Carlyle said. “The momentum swung all in their favor. They found a way to beat us off the wall for the third goal off a rebound.

“There’s no excuse for that. You don’t give up breakaways,” with a 3-0 lead.

Said Morrow: “That short-handed goal really got things going. A one-goal lead is nothing.”

Giguere was more blunt.

“The first mistake we made was we just stopped playing,” Giguere said. “In today’s game, a three-goal lead is nothing. Especially when they’re at home and they’re not going to quit.”

The first 20 minutes were as improbable as anything the Ducks have shown against the Stars. Andy McDonald and Teemu Selanne had power-play goals against Marty Turco and low-scoring Samuel Pahlsson got his third of the season.

Turco, in his first game since signing a four-year, $22.8-million contract extension, was pulled after the first period in favor of Johan Hedberg, who stopped all 16 shots he faced and then foiled the Ducks on three of four tries in the shootout.

McDonald scored in the shootout to answer Jussi Jokinen’s goal, but Miettinen’s heroics dropped the Ducks’ overtime record to 1-6.