Ducks trying to solve puzzling problem costing them precious points

The Ducks are leaving precious points on the ice, and right now, they have no answers.

Nine of the club’s 30 contests have ended in a stalemate after 60 minutes, and they’ve yet to find the back of the net during overtime.

The Ducks are 0-3 in games that ended during the three-on-three extra period, including Friday’s overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild. The other six times, the Ducks were forced to engage in a shootout, and the results haven’t been pretty there, either.

They’ve won just two of their six skill competitions, meaning they’ve picked up two of a possible nine points when a game wasn’t decided in regulation; precious points that could come back to haunt them in a tight Western Conference playoff race.

“[Overtime is] totally a puck possession [game], and then take your chance and go after it,” coach Randy Carlyle said Sunday. “And we’ve been very apprehensive about going after it with any chance.

“Again, is there something that we should be doing to stimulate more aggressiveness? Maybe so. We’re not happy that we give up some points that are available. We’ve missed those points.

“Again, with the challenges that come on a day-to-day basis with your group, we’re going to take the point and move on. We don’t foresee that we’re going to have 40 more overtime games, but there could be three or four more, for sure.”

Perhaps that’s wishful thinking on Carlyle’s part considering 30% of the team’s contest so far have reached overtime. Five of the past 11 games have reached the extra period.

The Ducks grabbed an extra point in just one of those games, and then conceded points in the next four such meetings.

Help is on the way, though. Speed and skill are at premium with the open-ice play, and the Ducks have been without their top two centers. Ryan Getzlaf is set to return Monday, with Ryan Kesler expected back after Christmas.

The goaltending from both John Gibson and Ryan Miller has been stellar, so the team has no worries there. And if the Ducks reach the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season, they won’t have to concern themselves with three-on-three play or the shootout.

But to get there, they need to find a way to grab those points, and fast.

“You go for broke, but you go for broke with puck possession,” Carlyle said. “In looking at it and viewing it, [we] went back with the puck when we didn’t have to.

“We gave them an opportunity to change a line. I don’t want to dump on the personnel, but we had young guys that are out in that situation. I’m not pointing the finger. With the players that we have coming back, we have more options to put in those situations.”

DUCKS TONIGHT

VS. CAROLINA HURRICANES

When: 7

On the air: TV: Fox Sports West; Radio: 830

Update: The Ducks host the Hurricanes before the club hits the road for another six-game swing, this time chiefly in the Northeast. In their previous meeting, the Ducks topped the ’Canes in Carolina in a 4-3 shootout. That was the last time Getzlaf suited up. He suffered a fractured cheekbone in the Oct. 29 contest, but is set to return Monday. Winger Jakob Silfverberg, who has been sidelined for the past five games with an upper-body injury, is slated to play, too.

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