Ducks come up empty in Chicago

CHICAGO -- It hasn’t happened much over the last month, but that didn’t make it easier for the Ducks to stomach a rare loss.

Outside of quickly turning their focus to tonight’s game at Colorado, there wasn’t much to gain from a 3-0 defeat Wednesday night at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center.

Another chance to tie a franchise record of seven consecutive wins set during the 1998-99 season went by the boards. It was only their second loss in the last 13 games, but it cost the Ducks (38-24-7) a chance to gain ground in the Pacific Division race as first-place Dallas lost to Phoenix at home.

“I think it was good that we got a little slap in the face,” Ducks forward Teemu Selanne said. “We need to get back to the work we have to do. Things have been going very smoothly lately and this was a good wake-up call.”

Sparked by Selanne after his long hiatus, the Ducks had averaged 3.8 goals a game with the winger in the lineup.

And it seemed as if they’d lick their chops when the Blackhawks started rookie Corey Crawford in net for only the second time in his NHL career. But the Ducks didn’t test Crawford much as they had only six shots late in the second period.

Crawford made 19 saves in all for his first shutout.

Dustin Byfuglien and Cam Barker scored power-play goals and Patrick Sharp added an empty-netter with 1:31 remaining.

“He was able to see everything,” Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said. “They were able to box us out. In this league, if a goalie can see the puck, 99 times out of 100 he’s going to be able to stop it.”

About the only the thing the Ducks were truly successful at was adding to their league lead in fighting majors and penalty minutes, two things they are readily familiar with as they led in both during last year’s Stanley Cup-winning season.

Now with 1,315 penalty minutes for the season, the Ducks picked up 67 of them against Chicago, with most of them coming in a fight-filled first period.

“We didn’t deserve to win,” Selanne said. “We didn’t even play close to how we can play. No excuse.”

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TONIGHT

at Colorado, 6 PST, Ch. 56

Site -- Pepsi Center.

Radio -- 830.

Records -- Ducks 38-24-7; Avalanche 35-26-6.

Record vs. Avalanche -- 3-0-0.

Update -- Peter Forsberg made his first appearance for Colorado on Tuesday, playing more than 19 minutes against Vancouver.

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