Discipline Missing in Ducks

PHOENIX — It’s going to take a lot more than merely wanting to make the playoffs for the Mighty Ducks to actually do it.

And it will require more than the remarkable skill and intensity of Paul Kariya, whose three goals were wasted in a 6-3 loss to Phoenix in front of 15,177 at America West Arena as the Ducks blew a chance to pass the Coyotes and move into seventh place in the Western Conference standings.

Making the playoffs is going to take discipline, and that was in short supply Thursday.

“Poor discipline, stupid penalties,” said Kariya, who needed 157 games to earn his first NHL hat trick and now has two in the last five games. “A loss is a loss, even if you score five or six goals.”

The Ducks were playing their second game in two nights and the Coyotes their first in eight days. But it was the Ducks’ lack of control more than exhaustion that did them in, with Phoenix scoring three of its five goals on power plays before Keith Tkachuk added one into an empty net at the end, his 30th goal of the season.

“We learned a good lesson,” defenseman Bobby Dollas said. “Sometimes you’ve got to take a punch in the head. Turn the other cheek.”

One such instance came when Teemu Selanne reacted to a no-call on Cliff Ronning’s second-period slash to a sensitive spot on the back of his right knee by retaliating with a cross-check.

“I think it was a dangerous slash,” Selanne said of a play Coach Ron Wilson called “a blatant miscall.” It’s also one the Ducks might send in for NHL review.

“There’s no protection back there,” Selanne said. “Hit the right spot and you can be out four, five, six weeks.”

Worse than Selanne’s retaliation was defenseman David Karpa’s cross-check in front of the net 11 seconds later with the Ducks already trying to kill Selanne’s penalty, giving Phoenix a five-on-three for 1:49. Karpa also was given a 10-minute misconduct for arguing.

The Coyotes didn’t score on that opportunity, it’s true. But they scored on three others.

“It still has a negative effect,” Kariya said. “Over and over, you can’t keep giving a team a break. Even when they don’t score, it wears you out killing penalties and it cuts down the time certain people are on the ice.”

Phoenix--which was led by Ronning’s two goals and four assists from former Duck Oleg Tverdovsky--jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first 11 minutes. Although Kariya three times cut the lead to one goal--completing the hat trick at 11:20 of the second with his 20th goal of the season--the Ducks never caught up.

“There was lack of discipline killing penalties,” Wilson said. “We didn’t get the puck all the way down two times and ended up turning it over. We competed hard. If not for lack of discipline killing penalties, it might have been a different story.”

The Ducks’ defense has faltered, giving up 41 shots to a notoriously defensive New Jersey team in a victory Wednesday but winning behind the goaltending of Guy Hebert.

Hebert wasn’t as sharp Thursday, and Wilson pulled him for Mikhail Shtalenkov in the second period when Hebert went to his knees to stretch his back after giving up the fourth Phoenix goal.

“I was just starting to cramp up and was taking a minute to calm the team down,” said Hebert, who came out after Mikhail Shtalenkov had come on the ice and officials signaled to him to go to the bench. “I’m sure I could have stayed in . . . but speaking for myself, I was exhausted before the game.”

The Ducks’ next game is against the Kings Saturday at the Forum, and it’s an important one for both, since both are just out of the playoff picture.

“We know exactly how tough it’s going to be,” Selanne said. “Every player remembers last year, how tight it was, how important every point can be.”