Carney Leaves Game Because of Back Spasms

Mighty Duck defenseman Keith Carney left Sunday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first period and didn’t return because of back spasms.

Carney played a little more than five minutes and had six shifts but said his back began to stiffen on his second or third shift.

“It started to tighten up,” Carney said. “I tried to do a couple of more [shifts], and it just got worse. There was a point there where it was really [hurting] and I went in for treatment.”

With Carney’s absence, the Ducks played with five defensemen. Ruslan Salei was on the ice for a season-high 31 minutes 44 seconds.

“It’s always a factor when you have to go down to five defensemen,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “It leaves you short on the back end. But that’s the hand you’re dealt and you got to play.”

Carney, 36, has played in all 60 games after a injury-plagued 2003-04 season.

“It’s something I’ve had before,” Carney said. “I can’t remember when. Not this year at all.”

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The Ducks got a scare when center Andy McDonald was driven head first into the end boards by defenseman Luke Richardson behind the Columbus net early in the third period.

McDonald, who got up slowly but returned to score the tying goal, has had concussion problems in the past and sat out the second half of the 2002-03 season.

“I kind of lost my balance there after I shot the puck and went in kind of awkward,” he said. “I tweaked my neck a little bit. Fortunately for me, it was no big deal.

“I’ve got run in a couple of times this year. I try not to think about it too much.”

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Center Sergei Fedorov had a relatively quiet return in his first trip to Anaheim since the Ducks traded him to Columbus on Nov. 15. Fedorov assisted on Nikolai Zherdev’s power-play goal in the first period.

The fan reaction, he said, didn’t compare to the booing he received when he returned to Detroit, where he played his first 13 seasons.

“I wasn’t here 10 years,” Fedorov said. “It was only 1 1/2 . After warmup, I thought the fans weren’t going to boo me, which was a good feeling.”

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The Ducks assigned rookie center Zenon Konopka to their minor league affiliate in Portland, Maine. Now healthy again, Konopka had sat out the previous 15 games because of a high ankle sprain.