Ducks’ fight not enough as they lose in shootout

The Ducks earned a point on Friday. But they also gave one away.

And given their desperate situation in the NHL’s Western Conference playoff chase, it’s the one that got away that mattered most.

Needing a win to move up a spot in the conference standings, the Ducks fought back from deficits twice in the third period Friday to force a 4-4 tie, only to lose in a shootout to the Vancouver Canucks at the Honda Center.

Corey Perry was the only Duck to score in the shootout while Vancouver got goals from Kyle Wellwood and Pavol Demitra. That took the luster off a record-setting night for Teemu Selanne, who scored a pair of power-play goals to move up a spot on two of the NHL’s all-time scoring lists.

Saku Koivu also scored twice for the Ducks, the final goal coming with 84 seconds to play to force the overtime.

Vancouver got a hat trick from Michael Grabner, who had two goals coming in and hadn’t scored since Oct. 25, and a third-period goal from Jannik Hansen, giving the Canucks the point they needed to clinch their postseason berth.

The Ducks are in a more difficult spot. Even with Calgary beating Colorado earlier in the evening, the Ducks are still seven points out of a playoff berth with five games to play.

Which means time is running out.

“We’re trying to keep the focus on our game and our situation and just go out there and get all the points that we can get,” Koivu said. “Obviously we’ve got to be realistic and at this point we can’t lose any points. We have to win them all. And that one that we lost in the shootout, it’s a tough one.”

It looked as if they wouldn’t get any points after Hansen knocked home the rebound of Christian Ehrhoff’s slapshot with less than seven minutes to play in regulation. But then Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler took a hooking penalty in a desperate move to stop a breakaway, and 15 seconds later Koivu scored on the power play to make sure the Ducks got something for their work.

But even Koivu admitted it wasn’t enough.

“At this point we have a week to go,” he said. “It feels like we gave a point away because of the situation that we’re in. Even if we win all the rest of our games, we’re going to need some help.

“We got some help by Calgary winning. So tonight that extra point was huge and unfortunately we weren’t able to get that.”

Both Vancouver’s Andrew Raycroft and the Ducks’ Curtis McElhinney came up huge in goal in a fast-paced first period before Koivu broke the ice early in the second period. Grab- ner answered with his first goal seven minutes later, but Selanne put the Ducks back in front on a power play late in the period.

The goal, the 602nd of his career, not only broke the tie on the scoreboard but it broke one in the record books as well, moving Selanne past Jari Kurri and into 17th place on the NHL scoring list.

A pair of goals by Grab- ner 21/2 minutes apart at the start of the third period put Vancouver back in front but the desperate Ducks -- and Selanne -- didn’t fold, scoring again on the power play at 9:20.

That goal gave Selanne sole possession of ninth place on the all-time power-play goals list with 218. But he’d rather have a win than a record, he said.

“I’d rather not pass him and get these points to give us a chance,” Selanne said. “We’ll just keep battling as long as we have a chance and see what happens.

“It’s tough to lose the one point tonight.”

Hansen and Koivu then traded goals to send the game into the extra period -- which ultimately proved frustrating for the Ducks.

“We were going for the two [points]. And that hurts,” said rookie Troy Bodie. “We know we’re still in the hunt. We know that. And all we have to focus on -- all we can focus on -- is our team.

“Yeah it’s only one point. But it’s a point. A big point.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com