Ducks Spin Their Wheels

TAMPA, Fla. — What good is beating the Florida Panthers when you lose to Tampa Bay?

The Mighty Ducks won one they didn’t figure to on New Year’s Day, but lost one that was hard to figure on Friday night, blowing a two-goal lead in a 3-2 loss to the Lightning in front of 17,769 at the Ice Palace.

“We keep losing games like this and we’re not going to the playoffs,” winger Warren Rychel said. “You can’t think because you win one game everything’s going to be easy, just because you beat one of the best teams in the league.”

Less than eight minutes into the game against the Lightning, the Ducks led, 2-0, after Teemu Selanne scored his 21st goal of the season and J.F. Jomphe’s hustle helped him score his seventh.

But three goals by Tampa Bay sent the Ducks filing onto their chartered plane home with a losing record on the trip.

“A two-goal lead on the road,” team captain Paul Kariya said. “We just loosened up.”

That has been a recurring theme for the Ducks, who led after the first period in all three losses on the trip--against the Rangers, Devils and Lightning.

“I don’t think we’ve been playing great hockey,” Kariya said. “I think great goaltending by Guy [Hebert] has kept us in a lot of games. This road trip, I don’t think we played that well.”

Although it has the worst record in the league, Tampa Bay is unbeaten in its last four games, including a victory over the Rangers.

Lightning center Chris Gratton, who too often has carried the burden of being chosen one spot ahead of Kariya in the 1993 draft, was the game’s No. 1 star after setting up the tying goal with a deft pass to Daymond Langkow in the second period, then scoring what proved to be the winning goal at 8:24 of the third.

Hebert made the first save on defenseman Roman Hamrlik’s shot, but Gratton swept in to gather the rebound, then quickly spun and slung it into the net over Hebert.

“From the bench, I thought the third goal was off-side and I watched the replay and it was, but people are going to make mistakes,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said.

Gratton also had a hand in the Lightning’s first goal, when he goaded Duck defenseman Jason Marshall into a penalty with less than two minutes left in the first period.

With Marshall in the box for roughing, the Lightning cut the Ducks’ lead to 2-1 with 48 seconds left in the period when Dino Ciccarelli deflected Hamrlik’s power-play point shot for his 18th goal of the season.

“I believed if we came out of the first up, 2-0, we would win the hockey game,” Wilson said. “I hope some people learned their lesson about a selfish penalty at the end of the first period.”

Marshall said Gratton called to him from the bench that they should fight, then came out and baited him into dropping his gloves.

“He kind of suckered me in,” Marshall said. “I should have had more discipline.”

“You have to walk away,” Wilson said. “He made a young mistake. Hopefully, he learned from it.”

Hebert made 35 saves, and kept the Ducks in striking distance when he foiled Brian Bradley on a breakaway with Tampa Bay leading by a goal in the third.

But the Lightning’s Rick Tabaracci only had to make 24 saves, including a third-period kick save against Rychel with the score still tied and a point-blank stop on Kevin Todd with about five minutes left.

“It was a good duel between Tabaracci and Hebert,” Tampa Bay Coach Terry Crisp said. “Hebert made good saves to keep them in the game, and so did Tabby.”

Wilson pulled Hebert with about 1:15 left in the game, but the Ducks managed to put only one shot on net in the final two minutes.

“Somehow they wanted to win more,” Selanne said. “Somehow we didn’t have enough jump, but you still have to find a way to win.”