Bad Mistakes cost Oilers

Ducks take advantage of miscues; Selanne ties Kurri for career NHL points

ANAHEIM, CALIF. - Some teams shoot themselves in the foot.

Not the Edmonton Oilers. They get out the shotgun, blast away and there’s not an appendage that’s safe.

On a night when things got very uncomfortable for overworked Anaheim Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller, who saw 22 shots in the second period, the Oilers gave the Ducks three gift-wrapped goals and fell 4-2 on Monday.

Ducks left-winger Jason Blake finished off a play when the Oilers made an awful line change at the tail-end of a penalty kill in the first period. Bobby Ryan sailed in alone with nobody within 70 feet of him in the third when the Oilers completely fell asleep. And then Nikolai Khabibulin, who was otherwise very solid in net, got caught going to the bench when Corey Perry had the puck on his stick with 60 feet of cage in front of his eyes.

The only goal the Ducks worked for in this game came from Perry, who has 10 goals in his last 13 games. He buried a slot-shot past Khabibulin with three minutes left for the eventual winner.

Oilers forward Jordan Eberle made it interesting with a power-play goal with Teemu Selanne in the penalty box and Khabibulin yanked to give them a 6-on-4 advantage. Shawn Horcoff scored the other Oilers goal, on a tip that found its way past the heroic Hiller in the second frame.

“We’re growing up, but sooner or later you have to arrive,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney, barely controlling his anger at the bonehead plays his team made on this night.

“You have to have courage to play this game, you have to have courage to take responsibility with the puck.(You have to have) complete puck-possession on plays and turnovers.”

The first Ducks goal was scored just as Ales Hemsky was ready to leave the box. Two veterans, Horcoff and winger Ryan Smyth, were killing the penalty up front. Two others left for the bench after Nick Schultz’s clear-out into the middle of the ice. It was a 2-on-0 for Ryan, who found Blake.

“Two on nothing? It was a four-on-nothing,” said Renney, sarcastically. “On a penalty kill? We had a little chat about that after the first period, going off, altogether.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. I know we don’t coach it like that. It’s not a tactic we try to employ.”

Horcoff admitted the Oilers goofed badly on the Blake goal.

“You can’t have all four guys changing at once. We’re tired, we’ve been out there a bit ... somebody had to stay out, a couple of guys anyway,” said Horcoff.

Renney didn’t know why there were no Oilers in the frame on

Ryan’s breakaway either after Selanne’s banked shot off the boards sprang him. Ryan tucked a nifty backhand past Khabibulin as he sailed through the air.

“These are all very good questions.”

Khabibulin was caught in no-man’s land, going to the bench, only to have Perry slide it into the open net? That was the final shot to the heart.

“Actually, we had the puck there but didn’t do a very good job with it. It has to get lower (into the Ducks end),” said Renney.

While Ryan and Perry stuck in the knife, Selanne had an assist to tie boyhood hero Jari Kurri for 19th spot on the NHL all-time points list with 1,398.

“You hear from Jari?” a reporter asked Selanne.

“Yeah. He texted me a few weeks ago and said, ‘Hurry up and do it,’ ’’ said Selanne, who had Kurri’s picture on his wall as a kid, and now counts him as one of his best friends. “This milestone means more because of that.”

“How long this league’s been going, how old it is, but to be the 19th highest scorer of all-time says something,” said Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau, after his team moved within five points of the eighth-spot San Jose Sharks.

“He’s a special player, a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Hiller was probably the reason the Ducks won, however. He stopped breakaways by Hemsky, who appeared to hurt his right leg or hip when he fell awkwardly after a second period shove by Saku Koivu, but came back for the third, and Eberle. He was making his 26th straight start and he didn’t crack.

“He was all we had in the second. If we don’t have him, they’re up 4-1 and Edmonton ends it right there,” said Boudreau. “But like they regrouped after their first period (the Oilers were outshot 11-4), we did in the third.

“It’s tough to have two periods in a row like the Oilers had.”

Eberle got his 29th of the season on their first power play since an unsportsmanlike penalty call for shooting the puck over the glass in the loss to the St. Louis Blues last Wednesday.

“I was wondering when we’d get one. I’m not sure why. Maybe we should have a yard sale and throw sticks and gloves and helmets in the air and make it looks like somebody shot us. It’s not even reasonable to think we wouldn’t get a power play for three games,” said Renney.

ON THE BENCH: The Oilers brought up Linus Omark from the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League, but because it would have been his fourth game in four nights, he sat out. He’ll likely play in San Jose on Tuesday. The Oilers weren’t sure Hall could play because of a sore shoulder, but he was on the ice. They also dressed Darcy Hordichuk, but the Ducks didn’t counter with their tough guy, George Parros. Hordichuk played three shifts in the first period on a fourth line, but the Oilers double-shifted Eberle in his spot after that.