Ducks’ Streak Comes to End

At least it was fun while it lasted.

With a chance to tie a franchise record for consecutive victories, the Mighty Ducks fell short from notching their seventh in a row and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, Friday night in front of 10,589 at the Arrowhead Pond.

Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere did not have one of his better games and Carolina captain Ron Francis scored two goals to end the Ducks’ winning streak at six.

The Ducks, who hadn’t lost since Jan. 21, started out playing like a team owning the longest winning streak in the league. One shift after another, the Ducks maintained pressure on Carolina, which lost a tough one-goal game against the Kings at Staples Center on Thursday night.

It didn’t take long for Anaheim’s attack to pay off. Winger Mike Leclerc, who has been playing well skating on the Ducks’ top line with Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald, scored his 17th goal of the season when he jumped on a loose puck in the slot and beat Carolina goaltender Tom Barrasso 3:41 into the game.

“We have guys who are going hard to the net now,” said Leclerc, who has five goals and four assists in his last eight games.

“We started the play off by doing a good job getting the puck in deep.”

Throughout their six-game winning streak, the Ducks did an excellent job of riding momentum. That didn’t happen on Friday.

Anaheim had a defensive breakdown near the end of the first period and Carolina capitalized when defenseman David Tanabe dropped a perfect pass to Rod Brind’Amour, who beat Giguere for his 15th goal of the season with 1:01 remaining in the period.

In the second, the Hurricanes came close to falling behind again when the Ducks attacked Barrasso from all angles early in the period. But despite a couple of great chances, the Ducks couldn’t find the net and the score remained 1-1.

With 7:30 left in the period, the Hurricanes found themselves with an gopportunity to take their first lead of the game thanks to a four-minute power play after a high-sticking penalty on Anaheim’s Samuel Pahlsson, who accidentally opened a cut to the left eye of Brind’Amour, who didn’t return to the game.

The Hurricanes, however, weren’t able to capitalize with their lengthy man advantage because the Ducks’ penalty-killers--led by scrappy forward Dan Bylsma--answered the challenge.

But shortly after Carolina’s power play ended, the Ducks again got sloppy on the defensive end and this time Francis made them pay with his first goal of the game. With Anaheim defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski losing his stick on the play, Francis gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead 12 seconds after Pahlsson skated out of the penalty box when he beat Giguere low to his glove side at 16:42.

“It’s a pleasure to watch him play,” Carolina left wing Bates Battaglia said about playing with Francis, who will turn 39 on March 1. “Every night he comes to play.”

At the start of the third period, the Ducks received a small boost from their fans, which gave the team a nice cheer. But that good feeling came to a quick end when Jeff Friesen was called for a slashing penalty 1:19 into the period.

After killing off Friesen’s penalty, the Ducks never seemed to regain control of the game’s flow and Carolina added a key insurance goal. Winger Jeff O’Neill, who is one of the most underrated offensive players in the league, scored his 22nd of the season on a goal set up by a sweet pass from center Josef Vasicek.

Trailing by two goals, the Ducks tried to force the action and that worked against them. Because Anaheim had to take more chances defensively, the game opened up and Carolina was able to take a 4-1 lead on Francis’ second goal of the night.

Winger Sami Kapanen fired a shot from just inside the blue-line that was initially stopped by Giguere, who couldn’t hold on and left the puck outside the net. That’s when Francis skate untouched from behind and scored one of the easiest goals of his career with 6:38 left in the game.

Giguere finished with 24 saves.