Stars align in third to defeat Ducks, 2-1

DALLAS -- Forty-one seconds.

That’s all it took for a perfectly solid game by the Ducks to fall apart Wednesday night and eventually dash the team’s hopes of extending its winning streak.

Mike Modano and Niklas Hagman scored power-play goals within that span in the third period to give the Dallas Stars their third consecutive victory over the Ducks this season, this time a 2-1 decision at American Airlines Center.

The Ducks’ season-best win streak was stopped at four and just how that ended will leave them scratching their heads.

Modano and Hagman took advantage of rare consecutive delay-of-game penalties that the Ducks (10-9-3) failed to erase as they couldn’t hold their early one-goal lead.

“We played a decent road game,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We worked hard, we just didn’t get the breaks that were necessary to have the outcome.”

Corey Perry’s team-leading 12th goal on the power play gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead that looked as if it would hold behind their tight defensive play and strong goaltending by Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

At 5 minutes 37 seconds of the third, Schneider tried to clear the puck out on the left side of the ice, but it flipped up on him and hopped into the first row behind the glass.

Only 76 seconds later, Travis Moen inadvertently flipped the puck into the stands as he was on his knees trying to bat it out.

Moen joined Schneider in the penalty box and Dallas suddenly had a two-man advantage.

Moen had just blocked a shot before his ill-fated clearing attempt.

“It hit me in the hand,” he said. “I didn’t see the puck, I was just trying to whack it out of our end. I got a little underneath it, it was rolling and popped it out.”

Said Schneider: “It was two bad breaks honestly. Both of those penalties, neither one of us was trying to clear it out. Mine just barely made it over the glass. Mo’s was just turning and swinging at it. What are you going to do?”

Modano was fittingly in the middle of the rally.

The Stars’ icon was honored before the game for becoming the greatest scoring American-born player in hockey. On his night, Modano ripped a slap shot past Giguere to tie the score.

“It was a rocket,” Schneider said. “It was just a bomb he let go. Jiggy didn’t have a chance. You’re just hoping that it hits someone in front and goes into the corner.”

Modano’s goal came two seconds before Schneider could leave the penalty box, allowing the Stars to get another chance with a man advantage.

Giguere, who made 22 saves, made a stop on a blast by Matt Niskanen, but Hagman jumped on the ensuing rebound and banged it in.

The two quick goals spoiled some hard work by the Ducks’ penalty-killing unit, which had erased four disadvantages.

“That’s the way it went tonight,” Carlyle said. “Their power play scored more goals than our power play did. Penalty killing got to come up big in those situations. We didn’t tonight.”

The Ducks were at full strength for the first time this season as forward Todd Bertuzzi played for the first time since Oct. 14 after suffering a concussion. Bertuzzi had two shots in just over 13 minutes of ice time.

Instead, they left Dallas feeling incomplete.

“I thought we played an excellent game,” Schneider said. “I thought we played 60 great, solid minutes. So did they. They played a great game. You’ve got to give them credit.

“It’s unfortunate. I thought we deserved better.”

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eric.stephens@latimes.com