Ducks Can’t Get Into Swing of Things in Loss

Nothing really changed in the Mighty Ducks’ second stop in Texas within the last nine days.

The Ducks struggled again offensively against the Dallas Stars. The difference was they didn’t have the fortune of a mistake-prone defenseman serving up a pass for a game-winning goal.

Order was restored, at least in the Stars’ eyes Wednesday night, as two power-play goals in the second period were enough for a 2-1 victory at the American Airlines Center, resulting in their fifth victory over the Ducks in six meetings this season.

The Ducks lost consecutive games for the first time since early February to bring an unsatisfying end to their three-game trip. Now they must hang onto their current playoff spot in the final 10 games, all against winning Western Conference teams either already in postseason position or fighting to get in.

It begins Friday night against these same Stars in the opener of a four-game homestand .

“That’s fine,” winger Teemu Selanne said. “If we can’t do it, we don’t deserve it. But I have 100% [confidence] in this team. Now we just have to regroup and re-energize to start the homestand.”

Even with a penalty-killing unit that is stout on most nights, the Ducks (37-23-12) are still learning that handing out power plays en masse to one of the NHL’s best teams is a recipe for failure.

Five of their 11 minor penalties came in the decisive second period. The Stars got three power plays in the period and eight for the game, which proved to be enough chances to convert.

Sergei Zubov broke a scoreless game with a wrist shot from inside the blue line and Niko Kapanen deflected in a shot from the point by Antti Miettinen at 17:05 of the second to snap a 1-1 tie.

There were positives in that the Ducks reverted to a sound defensive game while getting another strong performance from Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who kept them close with several big stops among his 27 saves.

As in most of the games against the Stars, it wasn’t enough.

“We had more structure but the penalty parade took us out of the hockey game I thought,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We took too many penalties. You can’t continually give teams of the quality of Dallas power plays and they made us pay for it.

“If we can keep our minor penalties down in the four or five range, then we have a better chance at success.”

Their job was made tougher considering the Stars held out Janne Niinimaa this time around after the defenseman committed a key turnover that resulted in Samuel Pahlsson’s goal in the Ducks’ win in Dallas last week. Niinimaa has been a healthy scratch since.

But the offense that had come to life in recent weeks reverted to early-season form. The Ducks’ only goal came from Ryan Getzlaf in the second period, and they managed just 16 shots against Marty Turco, eight of them in the final two periods.

Turco, who leads the NHL with 39 victories, made a key stop against Andy McDonald in the slot with 1:45 remaining to preserve the lead. But the Ducks also helped out by doing too much passing and not enough shooting.

“We need to shoot more,” Carlyle said. “We had opportunities to shoot the puck. Specifically at the end where Sami [Pahlsson]’s in the middle and he tries to pass with the goaltender out [of the net]. Shoot the puck.”

Forward Joffrey Lupul said they need to take advantage of the few opportunities they get against the defense-minded Stars. Lupul had a first-period breakaway but missed the net.

“Just a bad shot by me,” Lupul said. “I’ve got to be able to score there. We have a tough time generating offense against them, no question.”

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Defenseman Scott Niedermayer said he had no trouble skating on his left leg after hurting it Tuesday night when he was rammed into the boards by Colorado forward Cody McCormick.... Left wing Jeff Friesen was a healthy scratch for the first time since coming over in a trade March 9.