Ducks down to last chance

DALLAS -- Never have the Ducks needed a defining moment to change a game or a series like the one they need now, the kind that they regularly delivered a year ago to be the last one standing.

Hoisting the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive time is about as far away as a trip to London. An abbreviated postseason is on the Ducks’ doorstep after the Dallas Stars came up with all the key plays in a 3-1 victory Thursday night to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series.

The Ducks never faced elimination during their triumphant Cup run last season. But the challenge of becoming the first team to repeat as champion since the 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings has now become a monumental task beginning with tonight’s Game 5 at Honda Center.

Teams have faced a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series on 219 occasions entering this postseason and only 20 of them have come back to win, the most recent being Montreal against Boston in the 2004 Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

These are the long odds the Ducks face.

“It’s a challenge, but you know the reality is we’ve just got to win the next game,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “Focus on the next one after that. We can’t think about what it’s going to take to win the series. We’ve got to think about what it’s going to take to win the next game.”

The Stars look like a team set on advancing after three consecutive first-round exits. All three of their goals came on turnovers or breakdowns by an uncharacteristically mistake-filled Ducks defense.

Joel Lundqvist opened the scoring in the first with a goal off a turnover by the Ducks’ Sean O’Donnell. Dallas’ 37-year-old Stu Barnes got behind Kent Huskins to deliver the back-breaker midway through the third on a breakaway. Steve Ott finished a two-on-one with Barnes with 2:43 left.

“Unfortunately we made a couple of mistakes that ended up in the back of our net,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Those are the types of things you can’t afford to do in playoff hockey.”

The only question with Dallas is whether it has the killer instinct.

“Time will tell,” Stars Coach Dave Tippett said. “We’ll go in there and compete hard.”

If this defense of the Cup ends in the first round, the Ducks will have a lot to blame themselves about during the off-season.

Outside of their Game 3 outburst in a 4-2 victory, the punchless Ducks have scored just three goals in the other three games. Stars goalie Marty Turco played a major part as he had a shutout working until Mathieu Schneider scored with 7.6 seconds left in regulation.

Two nights after giving up goals on three consecutive shots in the first period, Turco responded with his best game of the series and had the crowd of 18,532 chanting “Mar-ty, Mar-ty” as he stopped 27 of 28 shots.

“It’s all about getting inside and getting to that net,” Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said. “We did a pretty good job in doing that and their goaltender played great tonight. I thought we threw a lot of pucks at him. We had our chances.”

The downfall began when O’Donnell received a pass back from Huskins and tried to shoot it to Teemu Selanne in the Ducks’ zone. Loui Eriksson picked it off and fed Lundqvist in stride for a quick wrist shot that sailed past a stunned Giguere.

“It was an unfortunate play,” O’Donnell said. “I’d have to look at it again, but the read that I had was that the guy had his back to me so I thought I could snap it real fast right by him right to Teemu.

“When you’re going through the middle, you’ve got be 100% sure and obviously I wasn’t. . . . I’d kind of like to have that one back.”

The Ducks also didn’t get the breaks they’ve needed. Brian Sutherby’s apparent tying goal in the second period was waved off by referee Dave Jackson when it was determined that he kicked the puck into the net during a scramble in front of Turco.

“It was a tough one,” Sutherby said. “There’s certainly no intent to [kick] it in the net. [Todd Bertuzzi] came down and he threw it a little bit in front of me. I tried to corral it with my front foot and bring it to my stick.”

No defending champion has advanced to the second round since Colorado in 2002. The Ducks need three wins to avoid a similar fate.

“We understand the situation and we have to win the next hockey game,” Carlyle said. “We have to give ourselves a chance.”

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eric.stephens@latimes.com