Ducks bottoming out a little early

Nothing is certain these days for the Ducks, who knew they wouldn’t leave every game with a point.

But they didn’t figure on hitting their first rough patch of the season against the NHL’s bottom feeders. The latest to win at their expense were the Chicago Blackhawks, who walked out of the Honda Center with a 4-3 shootout victory Friday night before an announced crowd of 16,526.

The Ducks did gain a point, but the loss was their third in four games after their league-record 16-game points streak to open the season. Their second straight loss came after a dreadful effort Wednesday in a 7-4 loss to the lowly Philadelphia Flyers.

“That’s the way these things even out,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “But I want to stress that we got a point. It’s not like we didn’t earn anything.”

The Ducks suddenly have some question marks in goal. Ilya Bryzgalov, once thought ready to challenge Jean-Sebastien Giguere for the starting job, looked shaky again despite facing only 24 shots.

Bryzgalov couldn’t have fared much worse than in his previous two appearances. The second-year backup gave up two goals in five shots in relief of Giguere on Wednesday and was pulled after allowing two goals in three shots during an Oct. 10 start against Calgary.

Not that his effort against the Blackhawks was a complete turnaround. Bryzgalov made 21 saves but managed to let Chicago tie the score early in the third period on a long screened shot by Tuomo Ruutu.

“I’m really disappointed,” a downcast Bryzgalov said. “I can play really well. Now I understand why the coach didn’t want to give me time on the ice.

“I didn’t see the shot. [It’s] still a soft goal. I have to find the puck.”

Said Carlyle: “In my mind, he played and he gave us a chance. Bottom line is we didn’t put enough pucks by them.”

The Ducks lost their fourth shootout in six tries as they failed to score on Nikolai Khabibulin. Bryzgalov made two saves in his first-ever shootout but couldn’t keep Ruutu from snapping a wrist shot by him.

The Ducks started fast. On their first shift, Teemu Selanne cycled the puck in the offensive zone back to Scott Niedermayer, who flung it toward the net, and Francois Beauchemin worked his way into the slot to deflect it by Khabibulin.

Selanne put them up, 2-0, early in the second period with his own well-placed deflection of a Niedermayer shot into the left corner of the net, giving the forward 12 points in his last nine games.

“I thought we came out and had some pretty good energy,” said Niedermayer, who assisted on all three goals. “The forwards were working hard, skating and drawing a lot of penalties.”

The Ducks held Chicago to two shots in the first 11 minutes of the second but saw their lead cut in half when Michael Holmqvist’s centering pass hit off Martin Lapointe’s left skate and went past Bryzgalov.

The remainder of the period saw the Ducks living dangerously. They failed to cash in a 59-second five-on-three situation and nearly lost their lead when another shot trickled into the net, but referee Dan O’Halloran waved it off, whistling Ruutu for interfering with Bryzgalov.

The Ducks’ Chris Kunitz poked in a rebound on the power play for his fifth goal in his last six games and team-leading 10th overall, but the Blackhawks did a little redirecting of their own only 1:36 later with Patrick Sharp doing the honors.

As the period ended, the Ducks managed only to break even despite putting 21 shots on Khabibulin, who made 42 saves in his first game since breaking his finger Oct. 21 against St. Louis. They also had 11 power plays -- 10 consecutive at one point -- but converted only twice.

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eric.stephens@latimes.com