December 2010 Archives

Team USA vaulted into the semifinal round of the World Junior championships in Buffalo with a 2-1 win over Switzerland.

Whittier native and Detroit Red Wings prospect Mitch Callahan scored the game-winning goal midway through the second period, while forwards and Ducks prospects Emerson Etem (Long Beach) and Kyle Palmieri were held without a point.

The U.S. will play the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between Canada and Switzerland on Monday at 4:30 p.m. Canada lost, 6-5 in overtime to Sweden earlier Friday.

Defenseman Sami Vatanen, a fourth-round pick in 2009, had an assist in Sweden's 6-0 win over Slovakia. Finland takes on the winner of Sunday's Sweden-Russia contest earlier Monday. Igor Bobkov, a third-round Ducks draft pick in 2009, didn't play in Russia's 8-3 win over the Czech Republic.

Jason Blake and Lubomir Visnovsky had two goals apiece, and Bobby Ryan added another to lift the Ducks to a 5-2 win in their first game since Ryan Getzlaf's potentially serious injury.

Ryan centered a top line with left wing Matt Beleskey and right wing Corey Perry. Other than that, the lineup looked mostly the same, with the Masterton Line of Blake (two goals), Teemu Selanne (two assists) and Saku Koivu (two assists) coming up the biggest. Defenseman Toni Lydman also had two assists for the Ducks, including a precision pass to spring Blake on a breakaway for his first goal of the game.

Jonas Hiller made 35 saves and stood tall after Jeff Carter's goal brought the Flyers within 3-2 at 3:30 of the third period.

Visnovsky's goal, with 3:10 left in the game, gave him 100 for his career and completed the scoring.

The Ducks blocked 14 shots, including four by Andy Sutton and three by Visnovsky. Cam Fowler blocked another late that appeared to injure the 19-year-old defenseman, but Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said that Fowler was OK after the game.

More details in tomorrow's editions.

It would have been difficult for Maxim Lapierre to ask the Montreal Canadiens to trade him. The 25-year-old grew up in Montreal, was drafted in the second round by the Canadiens in 2003 and had never played for another NHL organization.

Maybe that's why he didn't ask for a trade.

"I think since the new coach Jacques Martin came in Montreal, my ice time was going down every game," Lapierre said in a telephone interview Friday. "It was a tough year last year. I was patient. This year was enough. I didn't have the ice time I wanted here and every time I had good ice time, I proved that I can do well. Maybe I wasn't part of the plan anymore, so that's why I didn't ask for a trade, but I asked where I figured in the team's plans."

The Ducks have acquired disgruntled forward Maxim Lapierre from the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Brett Festerling and a fifth-round draft pick in 2012.

Lapierre has five goals, eight points and 63 penalty minutes in 38 games. According to the website habsinsideout.com, the 25-year-old center had been complaining about his ice time; he was averaging 11:41 per game.

A second-round 2003 draft pick, Lapierre has one year left on a $900,000 contract. In his best season, Lapierre had 15 goals, 28 points and a plus-9 rating for the Habs in 2008-09. Those numbers dropped to seven goals, 14 points and a minus-14 last season.

One area Lapierre can help with: His 58% success rate in the faceoff circle ranked second on the team. He's also been slotted in as a right wing.

He is expected to arrive in Anaheim tomorrow and won't be in the lineup tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Ducks will be without their captain for the next two games - and possibly longer.

Ryan Getzlaf was diagnosed with multiple nasal sinus fractures as a result of a shot that struck him in the forehead, between the eyes, in the second period of Tuesday's game against the Phoenix Coyotes. The initial CT scan was performed Wednesday, and Getzlaf will see a specialist and undergo additional tests Friday to determine the length of absence and any additional steps.

The Ducks placed the 25-year-old center on injured reserve, ruling him out for Friday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers and Sunday's game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Ryan Getzlaf earned his day off practice Wednesday.

The center received 10 stitches Tuesday after he was struck in the forehead by a close-range shot by Shane Doan in the second period of the Ducks' 3-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Getzlaf was oozing blood from the moment he was struck and did not return to the game.

"He got the puck directly between his eyes, eyebrows. There's quite a gash there," Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. "He had bleeding into his nasal cavity and whatnot, and he felt nauseous at times, but that's because the blood is draining into his stomach.

"We told him to stay at home today. ... It's better that he stay still here for a while and just basically soak that forehead with as much ice as he possibly can. Get his rest and that really should start the healing process here as we go."

A team spokesperson said that Getzlaf will have further tests and an MRI on Thursday.

One good omen, Bobby Ryan said, is that the captain "was in good spirits" and "was very vocal after the game."

Carlyle said it's too soon to know if Getzlaf is going to be available for Friday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Honda Center. If he can't go, expect Bobby Ryan to take his place on the top line between left wing Matt Beleskey and right wing Corey Perry.

At least, that's how they skated at practice Thursday. The second line of Jason Blake-Saku Koivu-Teemu Selanne remained intact. Todd Marchant centered Brandon McMillan and Joffrey Lupul on the third line, and Nick Bonino shifted to left wing on a fourth line with center Kyle Chipchura and right wing George Parros.

Bonino, a natural center, said after practice that it was the first time he's skated at left wing since he was in high school four years ago. Starting Bonino in a fourth-line role (as opposed to the third line, where he's been pretty much all season) could be an indication that Carlyle is looking to ease the minutes burden on the 22-year-old center, who will be available to the Ducks for the first time since suffering a bruise on his right foot Dec. 20 in Boston.

Also Wednesday, the Ducks announced that 2010 second-round draft pick Devante Smith-Pelly has signed a three-year, entry-level contract. The 18-year-old right wing has 20 goals and 37 points in 33 games for Mississauga of the OHL.

More in tomorrow's editions.

12 p.m. update: Smith-Pelly will make $750,000 each year he is in the NHL.

Syracuse Crunch forward Kyle Palmieri scored two goals in the first 8:31 as the United States cruised to a 6-1 win over Slovakia on Tuesday. Palmieri tipped in a great pass from Charlie Coyle at the net front to open the scoring, then notched a power-play tally off a long rebound off the boards from a sharp angle to make it 2-0.

Palmieri added an assist and Long Beach native Emerson Etem completed the scoring in the second period with his first goal of the tournament, a wrist shot that slipped out of the glove of Slovakian netminder Dominik Riecicky.

Goaltender Igor Bobkov got the night off as Russia lost 2-0 to Sweden.

Defenseman Sami Vatanen was held pointless but finished plus-2 in Finland's 4-0 win over Switzerland.

The tone was set early, when Jonas Hiller withstood an early barrage of shots, and continued long after Ryan Getzlaf left the ice spilling blood from his forehead.

There were some ugly moments to be sure, but the Ducks had to be pleased with a 3-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale. Goals by Luca Sbisa (his first in the NHL), Joffrey Lupul and Corey Perry completed the scoring in the first period.

"I'm sure it probably wasn't our best start, but we were able to brush it off and found a way to score," Hiller said after an outstanding 31-save effort, "and at the end everyone was playing well and sacrificing for the team."

• Forwards Emerson Etem and Kyle Palmieri were held scoreless, but the United States beat Finland 3-2 in its first game at the World Junior Championships in Buffalo. The game, which was televised on the NHL Network (check your local listings), saw Nick Bjugstad bail out the Americans in overtime with an unassisted goal at 3:08. Team USA will play its second preliminary-round game of the IIHF World Junior Championship on Tuesday against Slovakia. The game, to be televised on NHL Network and streamed live on USAHockey.FASTHockey.com, will start at 5 p.m.

• Defenseman Sami Vatanen, the captain of Team Finland, was held off the scoresheet.

• Goalie Igor Bobkov, a third-round pick by the Ducks in 2009, allowed six goals on 42 shots in the Russians' 6-3 loss to Canada.

The Ducks' problems ran deeper than the rare four-day layoff - no games, no practices - from the time they were embarrassed in Buffalo on Tuesday to the time they were embarrassed in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The layoff couldn't explain why the Ducks survived the first period but were walloped in the second, why the Kings knew where almost every Jonas Hiller rebound was going to end up, or why Corey Perry - the team's leading scorer - chose to take himself out of the game for seven minutes of the third period with his team trailing 4-1.

"You expect after four days off that they will be rusty in some areas," Randy Carlyle said, "but there was one area we were rusty in and that was competing."

(I used that quote in the game story too and, while I don't like to double up, a blunt Randy Carlyle cannot be quoted often enough.)

Emerson Etem and Kyle Palmieri will team up for the first time since Ducks training camp, as both made the final roster for Team USA at the World Junior championships.

 

Etem and Palmieri both had strong showings in two pre-tournament exhibitions for the U.S. --an overtime loss to Rensselaer on Sunday and a shootout loss to the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Palmieri was a lock to make the team after he scored both regulation goals Tuesday night. Etem scored a goal Sunday and had several more scoring chances against the Czechs, though he couldn't convert.

 

Two more Ducks prospects are slated to compete in the WJCs.

 

Defenseman Sami Vatanen, a fourth-round draft pick in 2009, will captain Team Finland. He'll probably play a lot, too. The 19-year-old leads the SM-Liiga - the top Finnish league - in plus-minus rating. Vatanen also has 21 points in 32 games, averaging over 22 minutes a game for the league-leading team, JYP Jyväskylä.

 

Igor Bobkov, a third-round pick in 2009, could be the top goalie for Team Russia. The 6-foot-6 19-year-old has struggled in his first season in North America. He's been relegated to backup duties with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, going 1-4 with a 4.63 goals-against average and .857 save percentage.

 

Check out tomorrow's editions for a full feature on Etem, a native of Long Beach.

Josh Green's latest NHL stint lasted only one game.

 

The Ducks returned the 33-year-old forward to the Syracuse Crunch one day after he logged 9:09 in a 5-2 loss at Buffalo. Green moved up and down the lineup, playing mostly left wing and a little center, and finished a minus-1 without recording a point.

 

Green was filling in while Nick Bonino rested a sore foot. The rookie center might be healed in time to play Sunday in Los Angeles but if not, Green could find himself in a Ducks uniform again.

It's not often that an NHL coach, in his post-game press conference, starts off by remarking how tired his opponent looked. But Lindy Ruff couldn't resist.

"I think we took advantage of a team that, you know, their energy level was low," the Sabres' coach said after a fairly easy win over the Ducks on Tuesday. "If you can take advantage of a team, get 'em down early, it makes it even tougher on 'em."

Getting the Ducks down early wasn't a problem for Buffalo, just like it wasn't a problem for the Hurricanes on Saturday, or the Islanders last Thursday. Due mainly to a porous Ducks defense, the Sabres struck three times against Curtis McElhinney in the first period, and again at 4:40 of the second, to take a 4-0 lead.

Jason Blake's vacation started even earlier than his teammates'. He was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Patrick Kaleta at 13:36 of the first period, skating quite some distance to knock Kaleta out of the game with the hit.

Check out this e-card from Cam Fowler and the boys:

The Ducks announced that rookie center Nick Bonino will miss tonight's game in Buffalo with a "minor foot injury," and Josh Green was recalled from AHL affiliate Syracuse.

Green gets the nod over Dan Sexton (who is coming off a hot weekend) and Matt Beleskey (who has six goals and 12 points in 14 AHL games), probably because he can play the pivot. So can Todd Marchant, who has been mostly used as a left wing lately, but Green also displayed pretty good chemistry with Marchant and George Parros during a November stint on the fourth line. The 33-year-old has no points in 11 games with the Ducks this season. He had five goals and 13 points in 19 games for Syracuse.

The Ducks play the Sabres at 4 p.m., then get a five-day layoff before Sunday's game in Los Angeles, which ideally would give Bonino enough time to heal before playing the Kings.

Goalies are often the biggest proponents of false modesty after a shutout, crediting everyone but themselves for what is often a stellar individual performance.

Not to imply that Jonas Hiller wasn't stellar in stopping all 45 shots he faced Monday night in Boston -- but the Ducks would be rightly credited with one of their more balanced wins of the season.

They exorcised some first-period demons by taking a 1-0 lead on Brandon McMillan's goal at 5:57 and not letting go. They took that early confidence boost for a spin on both ends of the ice, allowing Hiller to weather (and more importantly, see) the Bruins' 45 shots, giving Anaheim two wins in four games of its five-game East Coast trip.

Andreas Lilja (paired with Cam Fowler) and Andy Sutton (paired with Luca Sbisa) both re-entered the lineup on defense and "both of those players played one of their best games of the year for us," in the words of Randy Carlyle.

McMillan played probably his best game too, scoring when the rebound of Sbisa's shot fell to his feet in front of Tim Thomas (22 saves), then leading the charge to the net that resulted in Corey Perry's short-handed goal at 15:05 of the second period.

McMillan also was part of the rush that led to Lubomir Visnovsky's second-period tally, giving the rookie a plus-3 rating and his first multiple-point game in the NHL.

"The kid has worked hard and he got an opportunity," Carlyle said. "I moved him out with [Saku] Koivu and [Teemu] Selanne to try and balance out three lines. Because, when you look at their three lines that they have, they got [Marc] Savard centering one line, they got [David] Krejci and then you got [Patrice] Bergeron. Those are three pretty good centers so offensively they can create a lot, so we had to try and match that up so we weren't overwhelmed by any one line."

Dan Sexton's three-point game Sunday wrapped up a big weekend for the erstwhile Ducks right wing in the American Hockey League.

Sexton scored once at even strength and once short-handed - who knew he could kill penalties? - and added an assist in the Syracuse Crunch's 5-0 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack Connecticut Whale. Sexton also had a goal in a 4-1 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday, giving him three goals and an assist in two games since his latest AHL demotion.

Defenseman Brett Festerling (two goals, plus-4 rating), left wing Matt Beleskey (goal, assist) and defenseman Mat Clark (goal, assist) also had strong games for the Crunch on Sunday.

Although playing back-to-back games is common for AHL goalies, Jean-Phillippe Levasseur's weekend bears mentioning. His 32-save shutout Sunday came less than 24 hours after a 42-save effort against the Penguins. The 23-year-old lowered his goals-against average to 2.81 and boosted his save percentage to .918.

With Timo Pielmeier struggling (6-10-1, 3.61, .898), Levasseur looks like the Ducks' number three goalie by default.

Despite the return of Teemu Selanne, the Ducks couldn't overcome a natural hat trick by Eric Staal in the game's first 22 minutes en route to their second straight loss.

Ryan Getzlaf scored both goals for the Ducks, the latter coming during a 6-on-3 shift with 1:48 left in the third period. Saku Koivu nearly knotted the game at 3 less than a minute later, but Cam Ward made the biggest of his 43 saves when he miraculously gloved down Koivu's 9-foot shot to preserve the Hurricanes' one-goal lead.

Joe Corvo provided the final score by scoring into an empty net with six seconds left.

Staal scored twice on the power play, at 7:27 and 19:33, as Carolina scored on its first two power plays of the game. He completed the hat trick with an even-strength goal after some good passing in traffic at 1:41 of the second period.

While hats littered the ice, Randy Carlyle shuffled his forward lines and saw the Ducks respond with several scoring chances against Ward. Their 45 shots on goal were their second-most of the season and marked their highest total since Nov. 19 against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Selanne, playing his first game back from a groin injury, led the way with eight shots on goal in 20 minutes of ice time. He switched places with Bobby Ryan, skating with Getzlaf and Corey Perry for the final two periods. Bobby Ryan finished the game on a line with Koivu and Joffrey Lupul; Todd Marchant skated with Nick Bonino and Brandon McMillan; Jason Blake skated with Kyle Chipchura and George Parros.

Paul Mara re-entered the Ducks' lineup, and Andreas Lilja and Andy Sutton were both healthy scratches. Mara skated on a third pairing with Luca Sbisa.

A one-minute, 39-second span of the first period gave the Islanders all their goals, knocked Curtis McElhinney out of the game, and ended the Ducks' three-game winning streak all in one fell swoop.

The Islanders ended a six-game losing streak and won just their second game since Oct. 23, a span during which they are now 2-17-3. They did it on first-period goals by P.A. Parenteau (15:06), Blake Comeau (15:34) and Matt Moulson (16:45), the last of which spelled the end of Curtis McElhinney's night.

"Being down 3-0 after 10, 15 minutes, it's a tough hole to climb out of - doesn't matter who you play," Ducks winger Corey Perry said. "Those are things that we can't let happen. Last night was a big, emotional win for us, playing Washington. We came in here and we didn't play hockey until 15 minutes (in)."

The Ducks weathered a slow start in the nation's capital en route to their third straight win, getting a goal from captain Ryan Getzlaf with 56.6 seconds left in overtime.

Joffrey Lupul scored in the second period for the Ducks (17-3-4) and Brooks Laich scored in the first period for Washington (18-11-4), which has lost seven in a row.

After outshooting the Ducks 26-14 through two periods, the Capitals seemed out of gas in the third. Anaheim controlled the play, leading 7-5 in shots on goal, but couldn't score on Semyon Varlamov, who finished with 22 saves.

In overtime, Jonas Hiller was only called upon to make one of his 31 saves. The Ducks looked like they were on the way to their third shootout in their last four games until Getzlaf carried the puck up the left wing, put on the brakes near the goal line, spun back around and used Scott Hannan as a screen for his game-winning wrist shot from 11 feet out.

Teemu Selanne made the trip but decided to rest his sore groin. Lupul took his spot on the second line, but got his goal on the first power play, flinging a puck that deflected to him underneath Varlamov at the 12:47 mark. It was Lupul's second goal of the season in his sixth game back.

Saku Koivu centered the Ducks' second line and played little more than 20 minutes after missing the last game with the flu. Selanne, center Kyle Chipchura and defenseman Paul Mara were the Ducks' scratches.

Bob Murray's contract as general manager of the Ducks runs through the 2011-12 season, and he wanted Randy Carlyle and David McNab to be able to say the same. Nothing more, nothing less.

"My experience has taught me that nobody goes past me," Murray said on a conference call Tuesday afternoon to announce the contract extensions for Carlyle and McNab. "That goes back to something from a previous job where I was gone and some people were left in some very uncomfortable positions when I was gone. Good and bad. That won't happen again. I felt bad for some people after I was gone."

"I'm up at the end of next year, and nobody's going past mine."

Randy Carlyle's seat just grew a bit colder Tuesday.

The head coach, along with Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations David McNab, both received one-year contract extensions that will keep them with the Ducks through 2012.

Carlyle's job security was questioned after the Ducks stumbled out of the blocks this season, before general manager Bob Murray publicly backed the head coach. Murray put his money where his mouth is Tuesday with Anaheim climbing the Western Conference standings at 16-13-4.

The 54-year-old coach has the most wins and highest winning percentage in Ducks history, compiling a 235-152-56 record in 443 career NHL games (.594 winning percentage). Only Buffalo's Lindy Ruff, Nashville's Barry Trotz and Detroit's Mike Babcock have been with their current teams longer.

McNab has been with Anaheim since the organization came into existence in 1993, and has been an NHL scout in some capacity since 1978. He served as the Ducks' assistant general manager for 14 seasons prior to his appointment to his current title in Nov. 2008. McNab's duties include overseeing all aspects of player development, having an expertise on the Collective Bargaining Agreement and its relationship to the salary cap in the NHL, contract and arbitration negotiation, player evaluation and scouting.

It's not every day that a hockey player proudly displays his stick after scoring a goal - that might be considering taunting in the etiquette-laden NHL - but it's not every day that a player scores a goal with an opponent's stick either.

Bobby Ryan's second-period goal and celebration, after scoring with Mikko Koivu's stick, will be the lasting memory from the Ducks' win Sunday at Honda Center.

It was almost enough to overshadow the first career hat trick for Corey Perry, which included his first career penalty shot in the second period. Perry also scored 19 seconds into the game for the fourth-fastest goal from the start of a game in franchise history.

The line of Ryan (goal, two assists, +4), Perry (three goals, two assists, +3), and Ryan Getzlaf (two goals, assist, +3) accounted for all of the Ducks' scoring. Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky had a pair of assists.

Jonas Hiller needed only 20 saves for the win. More details in tomorrow's editions.

The Ducks announced that left wing Aaron Voros won't have surgery to repair the broken orbital bone that he suffered on Wednesday in a fight with Vancouver's Kevin Bieksa, but the team will be without Voros' services for the next 3-4 weeks.

Meanwhile, Saku Koivu (flu) and Teemu Selanne (groin) will not skate against the Minnesota Wild.

Early in the first period, here are the Ducks' top three lines:

Bobby Ryan - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
Brandon McMillan - Todd Marchant - Dan Sexton
Jason Blake - Nick Bonino - Joffrey Lupul

Marchant and Perry are both wearing the alternate captain's "A"s that normally belong to Koivu and Selanne.

You don't need to remind Nick Bonino about his stat line.

How closely does he track it?

"Pretty closely," the 22-year-old center said Saturday. "It's frustrating not having a point."

For a man with no goals and no assists, it's almost a surprise that Bonino has been a fixture on the so-called "kid line" in Anaheim. The kids on the wing have changed frequently, but the center position has been locked up since Bonino was recalled from the American Hockey League in early November. He's only been scratched once in 20 games, averaging 9:42 in ice time per contest.

Only one player in the entire NHL - Kings defenseman Matt Greene - has played in more games than Bonino without picking up a goal or an assist. Among forwards, only new York Islanders tough guy Trevor Gillies has played as many games without a point.

The reason Randy Carlyle keeps penciling in Bonino is simple.

The Ducks squandered a two-goal lead, didn't score or allow a goal in overtime, then rolled the dice in the shootout. Sound familiar?

Friday's 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames followed the same script as Anaheim's last two outings, a win in Edmonton and a loss in Vancouver.

Lubomir Visnovsky and Dan Sexton scored in the first and second periods, respectively, to stake the Ducks to a 2-0 lead. After goals by Olli Jokinen and David Moss knotted the game at 2 in the third period, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry scored in the shootout to seal the win. Hiller preserved the victory with a glove save on Rene Bourque on the other end after Perry's goal in the third shootout round.

The Ducks have gained points in their last three games, and in six of their last eight. But about squandering those two-goal leads ...

"The problem is we start thinking too much about it, instead of just playing," Hiller said. "We're thinking about what could happen. It's a mental game. We have to do better and we're going to work on it."

Kevin Bieksa did more than merely win his second-period fight with Aaron Voros on Wednesday in Vancouver.

Voros sustained a broken orbital bone in the fight, putting the forward back on injured reserve after only one game back from a bout with the flu. Right wing Dan Sexton has been recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League. He could be called to fill in tonight if Teemu Selanne's nagging groin injury causes him to miss his third game in the past week.

Here is the video of the Bieksa-Voros bout in Vancouver:

Curtis McElhinney's misfortune was just the opening the Vancouver Canucks needed.

In the midst of a stellar performance, McElhinney was knocked out when he was struck in the head by Christian Ehrhoff's shot in the third period. Adding insult to injury, Daniel Sedin scored when the puck bounced right to him off McElhinney's mask, Ryan Kesler scored on Jonas Hiller in the final minute to tie the game at 4, and Jeff Tambellini potted the game-winner in the shootout.

The surprising turn of events left the Ducks with a tough shootout loss in a game they led 4-2 with eight minutes left in the third period. It also left them without their backup goaltender, at least temporarily, heading into Friday's game in Anaheim against the Calgary Flames.

McElhinney stopped 24 of 27 and was in line for his third win of the season after goals by Corey Perry, Joffrey Lupul, Teemu Selanne and Cam Fowler.

Kesler's third-effort goal, with Vancouver skating 6-on-5 with 22 seconds left in the third period, was the only goal Hiller allowed on 13 shots in 12:18 of relief. Tambellini scored the only goal for either side in the shootout.

Lupul's goal was his first of the season in his third game back. It came one year to the day after his last NHL goal on Dec. 8, 2009, in what proved to be Lupul's last game of the season.

Todd Marchant had a pair of assists, and Selanne, Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Lubomir Visnovsky and Paul Mara had one helper each.

The Ducks activated Aaron Voros from injured reserve Wednesday and sent Matt Beleskey back to AHL affiliate Syracuse. Voros, who had been battling the flu, accompanied the Ducks on their two-game road trip, which continues tonight in Vancouver.

Beleskey kept mostly fourth-line left wing duty in his second go-around in Anaheim this season. He went scoreless in three games, with two penalty minutes and a minus-2 rating.

Voros, who hasn't played since Nov. 29, has no points in 10 games this season.

Cam Fowler scored his second game-winning goal of the season in the 10th shootout round, ending the Ducks' losing streak with one shot in Edmonton.

Joffrey Lupul scored on the Ducks' first shootout attempt and Taylor Hall answered in the third round, before Jonas Hiller and Nikolai Khabibulin put on a clinic to extend the shootout into the 10th round. That's when Fowler got the call. On his first NHL shootout attempt, the 19-year-old defenseman fired a hard shot into the upper-right corner to end the game.

"I obviously don't have the best hands out on the ice. I just wanted to put a good shot on net and give myself the opportunity to score. I think my best opportunity was just to shoot the puck."

Returning from a two-game layoff while he rested a sore groin, Teemu Selanne had a goal and an assist. He dished to linemate Saku Koivu in the second period - the Ducks' first goal in their last seven periods - and backhanded a rebound past Khabibulin to give Anaheim a 2-0 lead early in the third.

But the Ducks ran out of gas, a dangerous proposition against the young and fast Oilers. Goals by Ryan Jones and former Duck Dustin Penner in the game's final 10 minutes tied the game at 2. Anaheim couldn't take advantage of a power-play in the final three minutes.

Hiller made 34 saves and Khabibulin made 30 for the Oilers, who had won five straight.

Ducks prospects Emerson Etem and Kyle Palmieri were among 29 players named to the preliminary U.S. National Junior Team roster Tuesday.

Etem, a Long Beach native, leads the Western Hockey League with four short-handed goals. He has 18 goals (eighth in the league) and 31 points in 28 games for the Medicine Hat Tigers, as well as a team-high plus-21 rating. The 19-year-old was drafted 29th overall by the Ducks in the most recent Entry Draft. Etem led all WHL rookies in 2009-10 with 37 goals.

Palmieri represented Team USA at last year's WJCs, too. He made the leap from the University of Notre Dame to the professional ranks this season and made his NHL debut Nov. 3. The 19-year-old right wing scored his first goal that night for the Ducks but was returned to Syracuse of the American Hockey League after going scoreless in his next nine games. Palmieri has nine goals and 13 points in 17 games for the Crunch this season.

Both Etem and Palmieri were drafted with picks the Ducks acquired via the Chris Pronger trade.

The 2011 U.S. National Junior Team will compete at the IIHF World Junior Championship from Dec. 26, 2010 to January 5, 2011, in Buffalo and Niagara, NY.

It was the only game in the American Hockey League on Monday, but the Syracuse Crunch probably preferred that no one watched.

The Ducks' top affiliate lost 10-3 to the Charlotte Checkers after falling behind 9-1 after two periods. According to the Syracuse Post-Dispatch, Charlotte's eight-goal second period was the most in an AHL period since Providence scored a league-record 10 in the first - also vs. the Crunch - on Nov. 25, 1998. During the middle period Charlotte scored twice in a span of 21 seconds, three goals in 1:07, four in 1:41, five in 2:41, six in 3:39, seven in 7:15, and eight in a span of 13:44.

Timo Pielmeier started in goal before giving way to Jean-Phillippe Levasseur in the fateful second period. Levasseur provided no relief, allowing goals on both shots he faced, before being pulled in favor of Pielmeier, who finished with 33 saves on 41 shots.

Dan Sexton played his first game back in Syracuse since returning from Anaheim. Kyle Palmieri, Stefan Chaput and San Jacinto native Jake Newton scored goals for the Crunch.

Syracuse has won two of its last 10 games, falling to 8-12-1-3 on the season.

The Ducks were shut out for the second time in three nights at Honda Center, leaving the ice to an assortment of boos after Ilya Bryzgalov's 26-save effort.

Taylor Pyatt, Shane Doan and Lee Stempniak scored goals for Phoenix, which limited the Ducks' scoring chances to give Bryzgalov a relatively easy night. Stempniak's goal came into an empty net with 2:56 left.

Jonas Hiller stoped 36 of 39.

After 12 months that included two surgeries, a long summer of resting and walking and not much else and, more recently, three rehab games in the AHL, Joffrey Lupul is back.

The Ducks activated Lupul off long-term injury list after the winger was cleared by team doctors to play. He'll probably be in the lineup tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes at Honda Center; Dan Sexton has been assigned to the Syracuse Crunch.

Lupul played 22 minutes, 7 seconds for the Crunch on Friday, after playing roughly 15 minutes in each of his first two games with Syracuse. He finished with one goal and three assists.

Sexton had a goal and two assists in six games since his last recall. He had gone scoreless in his last three.

More to come after tonight's game.

The Ducks' 41 shots amounted to a whole hill of beans against Jimmy Howard.

Howard's fifth career shutout, two of which have come against Anaheim, allowed the Red Wings to stay perfect in three games against the Ducks this season. The Wings won't be back until March 2, by which time Teemu Selanne should have recovered from the groin injury that kept him out of Friday's game.

In spite of their chances, the Ducks had no answer for goals by Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom, Danny Cleary and Valtteri Filppula.

A split crowd of 15,173 at Honda Center had little to cheer for in a game that saw the Ducks commit 16 giveaways, and fail to screen Howard nearly as much as the Wings screened Hiller.

"We have to eliminate those mistakes we made in our own zone, especially just giving the puck away way too often," said Hiller, who stopped 25 shots. "They were able to keep us on the outside all night long, and we weren't really able to get second opportunities."

More details in tomorrow's editions. Here are a few notes that won't make tomorrow's editions:

The Ducks pushed their winning streak to three, moved into a virtual tie for the Pacific Division lead, and beat a team that they're expected to beat - all good things.

Their 5-4 win over the Florida Panthers will be remembered for none of these things, however, because George Parros scored two goals.

Parros took a behind-the-net pass from Kyle Chipchura to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead in the first period, then made it 3-0 in the second period on another one-timer from the slot off a feed from Chipchura. The game's final 33 minutes seemed as much about getting Parros the hat trick as getting the win.

"I wanted the hat trick for sure," Parros said following the first multigoal game of his career. "It was a great feeling. Glad our line could finally contribute. We can't rely on the top two lines every night. It definitely helps to chip in."

Parros also had a fight and Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan also scored goals. Jonas Hiller stopped 29 of 32, including a brilliant third-period stop on a Stephen Weiss wrister.

The Ducks host the Detroit Red Wings on Friday.