Dallas 3, Ducks 1; Selanne breaks hand.

Saku Koivu scored 88 seconds into the game, and that was the end of the Ducks’ good fortune.


Teemu Selanne was lost for the game, and probably longer, with a broken bone in his left hand he suffered while blocking a shot in the second period.

In the third period, the Stars got all three of their goals to seal the win. The first was a serious dose of bad luck for goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who could not stop a puck off the skate blade of James Wisniewski from going in his net at the 1:50 mark. James Neal, the last Dallas player to touch the puck, was the beneficiary.

Giguere appeared to stop Steve Ott’s shot at 3:01, but instead it trickled slowly through his pad and over the goal line to give Dallas the lead.

The Stars’ Brenden Morrow scored into an empty net with 42 seconds left while Giguere, who stopped 34 of 36, was pulled for an extra attacker.

Held without a point, Corey Perry’s franchise-record point streak ended at 19 games, 32 short of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record.

Geztlaf, Ducks prepare for hot ‘Hawks

“I don’t know if there is a good time” to face the Chicago Blackhawks, Ryan Getzlaf said Thursday, but tomorrow might be as good as any for the Ducks.

They have won three of four to start their current homestand. Even the lone loss, a 4-3 defeat at the hands of San Jose on Saturday, was “the best game we played this year,” in the words of head coach Randy Carlyle. Their two wins since, a pair of 3-2 decisions against Calgary and Carolina, matched the Ducks’ longest winning streak in a difficult season.

To win an unprecedented third straight, they’ll have to slow a runaway L-train that has won eight in a row, including a 7-2 blowout Wednesday in San Jose.
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Lupul adds to Ducks’ injury woes.

Already missing forwards Saku Koivu and Ryan Carter, left wing Joffrey Lupul sat out the Ducks’ practice Friday with an undisclosed lower-body injury.


“Just some soreness,” Lupul said. “I kind of know the drill. I don’t want to get into it too much, but it’s some soreness in my lower body. Hopefully it can be taken care of tomorrow.”

Lupul said the injury is not related to the recurring back stiffness that sidelined him in the preseason, but “wouldn’t rule myself out for tomorrow.”


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