HARD REALITY CHECK DUCKS' DEFENSE ROUGHED UP IN LOSS TO RANGERS N.Y. RANGERS 6, DUCKS 2.

Byline: Brice Nixon Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - It has been a while since the Mighty Ducks were beaten this handily.

Since early January, the Mighty Ducks have been on a roll up the Western Conference standings, winning numerous close games along the way. On Friday, they surrendered the second-most goals they've given up all season in a 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers in front of a sellout of 17,174 at the Pond. It was only the fourth sellout of the season for the Ducks.

Anaheim looked nothing like the team that was 13-4-1-1 in its past 19 games and unbeaten (5-0-1-0) in six consecutive home games. The Ducks stayed just one point ahead of the seventh-place Minnesota Wild.

The Rangers controlled play for most of the second period after taking a 2-1 lead just 1:29 into the period. Pavel Bure took a pass from Jamie Lundmark and beat Jean Sebastien Giguere with a shot from outside the left circle.

The Ducks were outhustled, although they held a 24-13 advantage in shots on goal with eight minutes remaining in the second period. Rangers goalie Mike Dunham, however, made that meaningless.

The Ducks' power play has lacked punch recently and that continued against the Rangers. The Ducks failed to even create the chances they had been. They are 2 for 33 on the power play in their last eight games.

Steve Rucchin got the Ducks even early in the third, but they gave up a goal shortly thereafter.

After Rucchin scored 49 seconds into the period, the Ducks surrendered a power-play goal for the first time in five games. Bure took a pass from Petr Nedved and briefly held it near the right post before lifting a shot past Giguere.

The Rangers scored again less than two minutes later. Giguere was stickless as Bobby Holik gave New York a 4-2 lead 4:09 into the third. Jason Krog inadvertently knocked Giguere's stick loose as he skated by and Giguere could only kick at Holik's shot.

Holik scored his second goal six minutes later and less than 10 seconds after Dunham stopped Paul Kariya on a breakaway. Alexei Kovalev scored with 3:02 remaining.

Samuel Pahlsson's first goal of the season gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead late in the first period, but the Rangers came right back to tie it 24 seconds later.

Pahlsson put in a rebound of Lance Ward's shot with 1:49 remaining for his sixth point in the last eight games. The assist was Ward's first point as a Duck. He was acquired from the Florida Panthers on Jan. 30.

Matthew Barnaby was alone in front of the goal when he tied the score for the Rangers. Eric Lindros took the puck from behind the Ducks' goal and backhanded a centering pass that went from Kovalev to Barnaby, who put in an easy tap-in with Giguere still at the opposite post.

Pahlsson had a chance for his first goal earlier in the period. Stanisalv Chistov raced into the Rangers' zone and fed a cross-ice pass to Pahlsson, but his shot from the right faceoff circle was saved by Dunham.

Kariya forced Dunham to make a tough save with the Ducks on a power play in the final minutes of the period. Adam Oates knocked down a clearing attempt behind the Rangers' goal and passed to Kariya in front.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Chris Urso/Associated Press

The Rangers' Brian Leetch (2) grabs control of the puck in New York's 6-2 victory over the Ducks.