Ducks’ Late Flurry Falls Short in Loss

EDMONTON, Canada — Passion. Purpose. Desperation.

It took two losses at home for the Mighty Ducks to finally play with all of that at once in the Western Conference finals, and their display turned into something worthwhile in a topsy-turvy third period.

And yet, Game 3 ended the same way as they all have lately against Edmonton.

The Oilers scored three goals in a two-minute, 21-second span in the third period to build a four-goal lead before withstanding a spirited rally by the Ducks to secure a 5-4 victory Tuesday night at Rexall Place.

The Ducks have lost all seven games they’ve played against the Oilers in the regular season and this best-of-seven series. They’ve also lost 13 consecutive games in Edmonton, a seven-year streak.

The Ducks are down three games to none in this series and are in need of a miracle heading into Game 4 on Thursday. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders are the only hockey teams to have come back from 3-0 deficits to win a series.

“When you look at it like we’ve got to win four in a row, it looks like a pretty daunting task,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell said, adding that if the Ducks win Game 4 and bring the series back to Anaheim, “you never know.”

Of all the defeats handed to the Ducks here, Tuesday’s may be the most bizarre.

After one goal was scored in the first two periods, by Oilers forward Toby Petersen, the teams scored eight in the final 20 minutes.

The Ducks’ downfall can be traced to two minutes and 21 seconds in which their determination and discipline left them.

Michael Peca blocked a shot by Ruslan Salei at the Ducks’ blue line and charged in to beat Ilya Bryzgalov with a breakaway goal. It was Peca’s third goal of the series and fourth in his last four playoff games.

The goal came after Teemu Selanne was called for holding Edmonton defenseman Chris Pronger in the offensive zone, negating a power-play opportunity.

“From our perspective, the game changed on the call on Selanne,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “It was kind of baffling from our perspective on that call.”

Steve Staios followed with a slap shot that blew past Bryzgalov. Defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski then took a roughing penalty when he put a retaliatory glove in the face of Oilers forward Shawn Horcoff. Thirteen seconds later, Scott Niedermayer was called for hooking Jaroslav Spacek.

“It could have been a penalty but it could have been a dive too,” Niedermayer said. “I don’t know if my stick actually touched him.”

On the resulting five-on-three power play, Pronger made it 4-0 with a long slap shot. By then, the sellout crowd of 16,839 was in party mode. Fans chanted “We want the Cup” and tough guy Georges Laraque egged them on after a fight with the Ducks’ Todd Fedoruk.

But the Ducks rallied, figuring out Oilers goaltender Dwayne Roloson after scoring two goals in 67 minutes against him.

O’Donnell started the rally at the 7:15 mark with his second playoff goal and Selanne got his first point of the series with a goal less than two minutes later.

Chris Kunitz cut the lead to one with a backhander.

“We started scoreboard watching,” Staios said.

But Fernando Pisani restored a two-goal lead for the Oilers when he stole the puck from defenseman Francois Beauchemin off a faceoff in the Ducks’ zone and put a backhand past Bryzgalov, who made 17 saves in his shakiest game of the playoffs.

“We made some mistakes that did cost us,” Carlyle said. “But other than that, we thought we played a pretty competitive hockey game. We had lot of opportunities and didn’t get the job done.”

Todd Marchant pulled the Ducks back to within one with 1:45 remaining but it wasn’t enough.

“We played well again,” forward Joffrey Lupul said. “It seems that they’re so opportunistic. Every time they get a chance, they’re scoring. It’s good for them. They’re playing well. But we’re playing well too and that’s what makes it frustrating.”