Ducks continue nose dive

Frustration arrived for the Ducks on Tuesday and it took many different forms.

There was a power-play opportunity in the second period that was short-circuited by a penalty in the offensive zone. There was a lengthy shift midway through the third period that accomplished everything but putting the puck in the net.

And there was the team’s leading scorer trudging off to the dressing room with two minutes still to play.

The Ducks were at a loss for an explanation of their second consecutive shutout loss, this one a 2-0 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center against a team that had given up 13 goals in its last two games.

“You don’t imagine that happening,” Ducks defenseman Sean O’Donnell said. “But it’s the reality. We’ve run across two good goaltenders and we haven’t been able to get a goal.”

Peter Budaj, the Avalanche’s second-year goalie, joined Dallas rookie Mike Smith in making himself look like Patrick Roy against the ice-cold Ducks.

They’ve been shut out three times in their last five games and have scored two or more goals only twice in their last 11.

Budaj stopped 39 shots for his fourth career shutout as Milan Hejduk and Peter Stastny gave him all the support he needed. Colorado has only two shutouts this season and Budaj has both.

“We had a lot of good chances to score and Budaj made the saves that he had to make,” Ducks center Todd Marchant said. “It seems to be that every little mistake we make is ending up in our net.”

The hard reality is the Ducks (33-16-8) are 6-12-2 since their amazing 27-4-6 start and their three-game losing streak leaves them with a one-point lead over San Jose in the Pacific Division.

They’ll look back at critical points Tuesday where they failed to break through. Trailing 1-0 late in the second, their ailing power play had a key chance when Avalanche forward Tyler Arnason was called for hooking.

Only 14 seconds into the man advantage, Teemu Selanne was also whistled for hooking and the Ducks’ top scorer began a slow burn toward referees Tim Peel and Dennis LaRue. Stastny provided some fuel by scoring against Jean-Sebastien Giguere with 1:12 left in the period.

The third period was indicative of their recent struggles. The Ducks took their second of two minor penalties for too many men on the ice. A sequence in which linemates Dustin Penner, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf tested Budaj with several shots ended with Penner looking, in vain, for a penalty call.

The Ducks’ frustration boiled over late in regulation when Selanne argued for what he thought should have been a delay-of-game penalty on a clearance by Colorado’s Ben Guite. Selanne received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a 10-minute misconduct.

The Ducks’ next three games are against other struggling teams in Phoenix and the Kings but nothing is certain with their current mind-set.

“You have to stay the course,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “You can’t come apart. I thought tonight we reacted poorly to adversity and that’s historically not our trait. Even though we haven’t had success and we get frustrated, we haven’t come apart the way we did.”

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eric.stephens@latimes.com