Better isn’t good enough

The talk around the Ottawa Senators’ locker room Wednesday night included more than a few references to frustration and disappointment.

The players knew they had done some good things against the Ducks in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals.

They had displayed a physical brand of hockey. They had mixed up their lines and played with energy. More than anything, they had stayed even with the Ducks for most of 54 minutes.

All of which made their 1-0 loss difficult to accept.

“It’s hard to analyze the whole game,” captain Daniel Alfredsson said. “It feels more frustrating than anything.”

The defeat leaves Ottawa trailing two games to none and facing a must-win situation with the series returning to Canada this weekend.

As center Jason Spezza said: “We’ve put ourselves in a tough spot.”

After a Game 1 loss in which the players felt they had performed sluggishly, Coach Bryan Murray tried to jump-start his team Wednesday by making a last-minute tactical change.

In the opener, the Ducks had matched their big checking line and best defenders against Ottawa’s top-scoring trio of Spezza, Alfredsson and Dany Heatley.

This time, Murray occasionally switched Alfredsson to another line in hopes of getting him some breathing room.

“I didn’t even tell the players until the lineup was handed in that we were doing that, just to give everybody a little bit of an edge to start,” the coach said. “And I thought we got some great hits right off the bat.”

Ottawa’s fast start included some rough play against a Ducks team that is considered stronger and more physical.

It did not, however, include any scoring.

Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson were blanked -- bad news for a team that has relied on its offense throughout the playoffs.

For the second consecutive game, Ottawa had a five-on-three advantage yet came up empty. For the second consecutive game, the top line surrendered the winning goal.

“We had some good shifts,” Murray said. “But obviously when you don’t score goals it means very little.”

To a man, Ottawa players praised the Ducks’ ability to protect the middle. They talked about struggling to effectively dump the puck into the offensive zone and create opportunities with forechecking.

Mike Fisher mentioned the Honda Center’s notorious ice, quickly adding: “We’ve played on bad ice here and there all year, so that’s not an excuse.”

Others on the team looked at the difference in shots -- the Ducks held a 31-16 edge -- and blamed Anaheim’s smothering defense, which Heatley referred to as “a real hold-up style.”

He was asked if that type of play isn’t supposed to be illegal.

“Yeah,” he said. “It is.”

If nothing else, the Senators took solace in the fact they were in position to steal this game, falling to Samuel Pahlsson’s goal with 5:44 remaining in the game.

Now they go home to familiar ice and a supportive crowd to boost their struggling offense.

“If you’ve got the answer, let me know and I’ll put it in the play next game,” Spezza said. “We’ve got to figure it out.”

david.wharton@latimes.com