Advantage Belongs to Ducks

Maybe the Kings need a bigger goal. Rob Blake rang two shots off the pipes Thursday night, Glen Murray one.

Maybe a Guy Hebert ban. The big Guy should send limos to pick up the Kings. He kills them.

No, maybe if somebody just turned on a switch at the Great Western Forum. There’s no question where the power lies in Southern California hockey. It’s in Anaheim, where the Mighty Ducks--who own the Kings--hang out and where there’s no shortage of man-advantage juice.

Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya scored power-play goals to give the Ducks a 4-2 victory over the Kings at the Great Western Forum. Both goals victimized the Kings’ Sean O’Donnell, both were scored with Blake in the penalty box and neither took very long.

The Ducks have won all five of their games against the Kings, and have at least one power-play goal in each. They are six for 14 when they have more men on the ice, two for three on Thursday, and needed only four shots in their three power plays to score two goals.

The Kings are two for 24 against the Ducks, finding no advantage in a man advantage at all. They were one for six on Thursday, when the goal came in the third period from Donald Audette.

It’s a large part of the reason the Ducks have dominated the Kings, regardless of shooting, regardless of scoring chances, regardless of faceoffs won or any other statistic you can drum up. The Kings led them all, but again trailed on the scoreboard and stayed five points behind Calgary for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Ducks have greater things in mind and closed to within five points of Phoenix for home-ice advantage in the first playoff round.

The Kings played it close early, as usual, holding the Ducks to two shots in the game’s first eight minutes and owned an 11-4 shot advantage when Olli Jokinen decked Jason Marshall on the side boards with just over 14 minutes played in the opening period.

Up went referee Don Koharski’s arm, signaling a penalty, but it was never assessed. Instead, the puck skittered to the other side of the ice, there to be gathered by Selanne, who sent it to Kariya, who sent it goalward.

Marshall got up off the ice, left Jokinen in his wake, followed the puck and was in position to slap the rebound past Stephane Fiset for a 1-0 lead.

Fiset’s stop of Kariya’s penalty shot 12 seconds into the second period generated no real momentum, not with Kings’ shots continuing to clang off the pipes and leave the net unfluttered.

Hebert was tested 16 times in the first period, 12 times in the second and 39 times by game’s end, passing 37 of the examinations. He has given up five goals in beating the Kings five times.

Hebert is 21-23-9 against the rest of the league.

The Duck lead became a more comfortable 2-0 in the second period on Selanne’s power-play goal, scored from Fiset’s right when O’Donnell was caught out of position, a bit ambitious at the blue line.

Selanne took the puck in largely unhindered and beat Fiset to the stick side, eight seconds after Blake had taken his seat in the penalty box.

It became 3-0 when Kariya skated past O’Donnell and fired from 30 feet at 7:51 of the third.

Audette’s goal, which came when Ray Ferraro beat Kariya on a faceoff and slid the puck far onto the left wing, merely mitigated the damage.

So, too, did a score by Russ Courtnall at 15:18, when he took a head-man pass from Mattias Norstrom, deked past Kevin Haller, kicked the puck back onto his stick and popped it over Hebert’s shoulder.

So what?

Kariya and Selanne answered 93 seconds later, Kariya taking a puck at the red line, tripping over Murray’s stick, getting up and sending the puck to Selanne at Fiset’s glove.

The win was the Ducks’ first in five games, two of which they tied.

It broke a three-game King winning streak and, perhaps, gave Coach Larry Robinson his club back. He had promised no lineup changes as long as the Kings won and kept that vow.

He has no such hindrance for the game against Florida on Saturday night.

* HELENE ELLIOTT: The Kings made a necessary move by waiving Steve Duchesne. And they shouldn’t stop there. Page 9

* WEIGHING THEIR OPTIONS: The Kings will find out today if any team is willing to pick up the contract of the high-priced defenseman. Page 9