Selanne eyes return Monday, and other notes.

Teemu Selanne was in a jovial mood Sunday, which usually isn’t news. But with a groin injury keeping the right wing out of the last three games, it was a welcome sight inside Honda Center. The Ducks host the Kings on Monday night in the first meeting between the Southern California rivals this season, and Selanne wants to be on the ice.

“You know what, I’m counting myself in,” he said emphatically.

Selanne traveled with the team to Glendale for Saturday’s game against the Coyotes and took part in the pregame warm-up, then decided against playing. “I was really tight, so I discussed with our trainer, and decided it’s not worth that risk,” he said. “I’d rather miss one more.”

The 40-year-old, who is always ready with a numerical estimate of his health, said the groin was at 70 percent Friday, up to 83 percent Saturday and 90 percent on Sunday. “Tomorrow I’m expecting 95 and that’s good enough,” he said.

“I had this like three or four years ago, so I knew exactly what kind of injury we were talking about,” Selanne added. “If I played one more shift I would probably pull it bad. By saying that, the schedule we have was too much for me. But I hope I’m going to feel better tomorrow, because I really don’t want this to be any bigger problem than it is right now.”

Lubomir Visnovsky wasn’t as confident he would return from the back spasms that kept him out of Saturday’s game.

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Ducks 6, Phoenix 3.

The only certainty at the moment in the Pacific Division is that you can’t be certain about anything in the Pacific Division.

All five teams are separated by two points, thanks to the Ducks’ 6-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday. Losers of six straight, the Ducks ended the Coyotes’ seven-game winning streak by scoring five straight goals to erase a 3-1 deficit.

Bobby Ryan scored three of the five for his first hat trick of the season. Corey Perry scored one and Brandon McMillan had another, the first goal of his NHL career, off a precision pass by Ryan Getzlaf from behind the Coyotes’ net.

Jason Blake scored in the first period against Anaheim goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who had allowed six goals in his past four games but doubled that total Saturday. “Bryz” fell to 9-7-2 against the Ducks in his career.
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Columbus 4, Ducks 3.

When is 50 shots not enough?

Apparently Friday, when Columbus goaltender Steve Mason stymied the Ducks’ offensive onslaught in a 4-3 Blue Jackets win — a game that featured more near-misses than a pistol in the hand of a James Bond villain.

The Ducks saved their best for a third period in which they outshot Columbus 25-3 — reminiscent of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss in Minnesota that saw the Ducks outshoot the Wild 16-2 in the third. Like Niklas Backstrom, Mason was living large in the final period, allowing only a Corey Perry goal at 7:22 to bring the Ducks within 4-3.

Bobby Ryan — on his first career short-handed goal — and Saku Koivu also scored for the Ducks, who have now lost four straight on the heels of a six-game winning streak. Jonas Hiller stopped 25 shots, allowing goals to Rick Nash, Chris Clark, Jakub Voracek and Steve Commodore.

More details in tomorrow’s editions. Here are a few more notes:

Continue reading “Columbus 4, Ducks 3.” »

Dallas 2, Ducks 1.

Kari Lehtonen barely had to move an inch with the Ducks on the power play. When the Dallas Stars netminder did have to move, he was in perfect position nearly every time.

Corey Perry’s ninth goal of the season was the only tally for the Ducks in a 2-1 loss at American Airlines Center. It was the second one-goal loss in as many games for Anaheim, which travels to Minnesota to face the Wild tomorrow.

With the Ducks skating 5-on-4, Perry’s 10-foot wrist shot completed a give-and-go with Selanne at 8:29 of the middle period to knot the game at 1. Unfortunately for the Ducks, it was the only man-advantage goal in 10:29 of power-play time. Randy Carlyle tried a switch to start the second period, sending out the second line of Jason Blake, Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne on a power-play that carried over from the first period, to no avail.

Anaheim fared slightly better on the penalty kill, at least in the third period, when Dallas spent six of the final 10 minutes on the man advantage. The return of Todd Marchant from an upper-body injury certainly helped, as did the steady play of blueliners Toni Lydman and Andreas Lilja.

The game turned on a Brad Richards breakaway goal at 8:24 of the third period.

Rookie defenseman Cam Fowler, wearing his new jersey #4, had only one giveaway all game, but it gave Richards an odd-man rush through the neutral zone. His shot through from the left circle clanged off the post, off Jonas Hiller’s pad and over the goal line before the goalie covered up. A video review confirmed the goal (which was announced by referee Marcus Vinnerborg – the first European-trained official to join an NHL crew).

Hiller also allowed a breakaway power-play goal to Steve Ott at 14:43 of the first period, finishing with 24 saves on 26 shots. Lehtonen was one better. He withstood a pair of point-blank chances by Bobby Ryan as the second period closed, as well as a 6-on-5 shift in the final minute with Hiller on the bench.

It was the first loss for the Ducks in three meetings between the teams this season.

Chicago 3, Ducks 2, OT.

In the span of two days in Chicago, Jonas Hiller went from a hospital to helping the Ducks salvage a point in the standings.

Hiller, who received four sutures to close a cut above his eye sustained in practice Saturday, made 40 saves in the overtime loss to the Blackhawks. He had little chance on Viktor Stalberg’s re-direction of a Duncan Keith shot with 28 seconds left in overtime.

Corey Perry scored both goals for the Ducks (10-7-2), who saw their six-game winning streak end. Both teams had plenty of missed chances in an up-and-down game, and Blackhawks backup Corey Crawford had some big saves among his 24.

“They took it to us in the second and third (periods,” Perry said. “Hillsie stood tall in there for those shots he had to face. Overall we didn’t feel like we played the way we feel we wanted to, but we got a point.”

Patrick Kane took advantage of a lively puck off the end boards to put Chicago up 1-0 at 3:37 of the opening period. Perry answered with an unassisted goal less than a minute later. Jason Blake created the chance on the forecheck by pressuring Keith from behind; the reigning Norris Trophy winner coughed the puck up to Perry, who barely had to skate before firing in a wrister at 4:34.

A power-play goal by Marian Hossa at 11:24 of the middle period restored Chicago’s lead, and ended a streak of 17 straight penalties killed by the Ducks.

Randy Carlyle shook up the lines for the third period, but that barely factored into Perry’s equalizer at 3:36 of the third period. Perry created the chance by himself, gaining the blue line up the left wing, turning sharply to cut across the offensive zone, then faking his way around Niklas Hjalmarsson in the right circle and firing a wrister into the far side of the net past Crawford.

For Perry, the goals were his team-leading seventh and eighth of the season.

A few more notes:

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Ducks 4, Dallas 2.

After stumbling to one of their worst starts to a season in recent memory, the Ducks have emerged to win six straight.

One reason for the quick turnaround has to be the emergence of secondary scoring.

Second-line center Saku Koivu extended his point streak to a season-high five games with the game’s first goal, on a redirect of a centering feed by Teemu Selanne. Bobby Ryan scored the Ducks’ final two goals to give him seven on the season. Ryan Getzlaf’s second-period goal — off a beautiful no-look pass from Corey Perry — was his seventh this year. All four players — Ryan, Getzlaf, Koivu and Selanne — are all on pace to score more than 30 goals this season.

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It’s official: Fowler will remain in Anaheim.

Cam Fowler was not playing hockey when he knew he had arrived, so to speak, as a full-fledged NHL defenseman.

“The last few days they told me to start moving some of my stuff into Scotty (Niedermayer)’s house and get my car out here,” he said. “That was kind of a good tip that at least they were going to keep me around for a little while.’

It became official Tuesday when Ducks general manager Bob Murray announced that he intends to keep the 18-year-old defenseman in the NHL this season. Fowler, who has played six games and is set to play his seventh on Wednesday, could have played up to nine games before Murray had to keep him or return him to his junior squad, the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.
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San Jose 5, Ducks 2.

It was a recipe for disaster. Their second game in as many nights, facing a much better opponent than the first – on the road, no less – and the Ducks the followed the recipe.

The Sharks broke out to a 5-0 lead that no amount of fights could curtail (there were six, for the record) and no third-period bounce-back could overcome. The shots on goal count was just as lopsided – 38-11 through two periods, and 41-24 the game.

All of which led Randy Carlyle to say, “we didn’t really seem to get involved in the game.

“From our standpoint, you can’t come into this building and expect them not to be coming out and jumping at you,” the coach continued. “I mean we did play last night. This is the second half of a back-to-back. But we got ourselves out of position and got into lots of trouble.”

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Fowler update, Green recalled, Blake back in.

Defenseman Cam Fowler “has made huge strides the last couple days, and hopefully he’s an option for us in the short term here. We’ll make a decision based upon how he tells us he feels,” head coach Randy Carlyle said Friday.

The 18-year-old has missed four games since breaking his nose against the Phoenix Coyotes on Oct. 17, a longer absence than was initially expected. Fowler skated on his own after the morning skate, and Carlyle said “he is a quite possible option for tonight.”

One player the coach ruled out for tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils is Josh Green. The veteran left wing was recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League, where he had one goal, three points and six penalty minutes through seven games.

“Josh Green was based upon (the fact) that we have back to back games,” Carlyle said. “I don’t think it’s fair to our players to expect them to come out of the lineup when they’ve been here and we’ve recalled a player from the American Hockey League. He’s here as a safety net. As far as using him, it will basically depend on the performance and health of our team.”

That means Jason Blake will re-enter the lineup after becoming a healthy scratch Wednesday in Dallas.

“What we’ve asked (Blake) to do is be quick and be first on the forecheck,” Carlyle said. “He’s got to be, as I call it, somewhat of a more tenacious player with the puck down below the goal line. Finishing the body checks, stopping progression — we ask every member of our hockey club to do that and to basically out-work the people he’s up against. Be a safe, responsible hockey player. That’s what we’re asking of him and of everybody.”

Matt Beleskey has a concussion, other notes.

Matt Beleskey has been diagnosed with a concussion and didn’t take part in practice today at Honda Center. He’ll be placed on injured reserve later today, a team spokesperson said, meaning he will miss Friday’s game against New Jersey and Saturday’s game against San Jose.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that Beleskey isn’t experiencing the worst of the typical post-concussion symptoms – dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, sensitivity to light – and there’s good reason to believe he will miss only the minimum seven days from the time of the injury, which projects to Tuesday.

“I’m feeling all right today,” Beleskey said. “I’m pretty sore in my neck and back, other than that I’m OK.”

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