Ducks hit a wall against Blue Jackets

The Ducks can go into the new year telling themselves they merely ran into a hot goaltender Wednesday.

They have too much talent to continue the meandering path they’ve followed this season. They can stand there like Kevin Bacon in “Animal House” screaming, “Remain calm, all is well.”

But another dose of reality was served to them in a 2-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday. It left the Ducks sixth in the Western Conference, with eight teams below them within six points.

“We need to find our identity,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “We have been talking about that lately. Are we a physical team? Are we a fancy team? Are we a defensive team? What are we? We don’t know yet. But we have to figure that out and bring it every night.”

On Wednesday, they were the losing team with a 5-8-1 record in December.

Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason made 27 saves for his third consecutive shutout and the Ducks had a bit of bad luck in the second period, when Corey Perry appeared to break a scoreless tie only to have the goal wiped out by a penalty.

“We didn’t execute,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “When you don’t do that, you don’t succeed.”

The Ducks started well Wednesday, outshooting the Blue Jackets, 9-1, in the first 10 minutes. But Mason, who began the game with an NHL-best 1.78 goals-against average, didn’t budge.

“He’s a big goaltender and when a guy like that is in his zone, you have to get traffic in front of the net,” Giguere said. “We didn’t.”

Giguere, who made 27 saves, matched Mason throughout. But Mike Commodore sent a shot from the blue that Craig MacDonald redirected high into the net for a 1-0 lead 7:33 into the third period.

Columbus’ Michael Peca flipped a shot past Giguere at 17:26 of the period, putting the lead in the insurmountable category with the way Mason was playing.

Mason was so sharp that he even made saves with his face. The Ducks’ Samuel Pahlsson glided in and lined up a shot from the high slot midway through the third period. The puck slammed off Mason’s mask, knocking it off, with the puck deflecting harmlessly away.

“I thought we were flat tonight,” Carlyle said. “We couldn’t generate much noise on the bench.”

Still, the game had an edge to it throughout, as if both sides were trying to use up their 2008 allotment of hits, slashes and punches.

Giguere and the Blue Jackets’ Rick Nash got acquainted on a handful of occasions. Giguere made a save in the first period, only to have Nash bull him into the net with the puck, then try to claim it was a goal. Later in the period, Nash attacked the net again, only to be tackled to the ice by Giguere after play was whistled dead.

The rough-and-tumble play led to a Ducks goal, but also got it waved off. Perry came from behind the net to score late in the second period. But the reason he had the time and space to do that was that Ryan Getzlaf tangled up two Columbus defenders at the crease. Getzlaf was called for roughing and interference, and the goal was disallowed.

“The referee said that I went to the net and ended up taking a couple of guys with me there,” Getzlaf said. “I think it was a matter of us running into each other. It was his interpretation of the play. We had to live with it.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com