Anaheim Ducks Hockey Team

. -- Corey Perry knows the Ducks are going to need a few opportune bounces of the puck if they are going to make a move in the standings. He got one worthy of a game-show contest Tuesday night in a 7-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. The seven goals were a season high for the Ducks. Perry scored his first of two goals when the puck deflected off his hand and into the net. His second was on a long rebound into the low slot.

The Ducks, fresh off a season-high seven goals, welcomed back Teemu Selanne, who had sat out five weeks because of a thigh injury. So the offensive problems should be taken care of, right? In goal, they started Jonas Hiller, who for the last month has clearly been their best goalie. Those problems solved, correct? Instead, it was the same old story for the Ducks, who played just well enough to lose to Chicago, 3-2, in front of a sellout crowd at the Honda Center.

The Ducks are counting on Teemu Selanne's return to rejuvenate them. Selanne celebrated a personal milestone -- he became the Ducks' career leader in games played Saturday -- by scoring the winning goal in their 4-3 win over the struggling Colorado Avalanche. "I think it's very important," Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller said. "First, he's a great player and second, in the dressing room, he's a great guy and the young kids can learn from him. He knows how to score.

When Andrew Ebbett's pass from behind the Buffalo net landed on the stick of Chris Kunitz just outside the crease, the Ducks' winger flicked his wrists and sent the puck . . . trickling toward the net. But Kunitz's near whiff couldn't have smelled sweeter when his unintentional change-up dribbled through the pads of Sabres goaltender Patrick Lalime early in the third period, providing the go-ahead goal in a 3-2 victory at the Honda Center.

The death of Jean-Sebastien Giguere's father in December coincided with a run of poor performances by the All-Star goalie. Whether they're related, the Ducks are giving Giguere time to gather himself and his game out of the spotlight. Erstwhile backup Jonas Hiller has started all four games since the All-Star break, and the Ducks have won three of them. Hiller, whose 2.

. -- With the Ducks in the middle of a tight Western Conference playoff race, Coach Randy Carlyle didn't like what he saw Wednesday night in the team's 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild. "It's only going to get tighter, and these two points were too important for us to pass up," he said. "It's just disturbing from the standpoint of how little we were into the game."

Pekka Rinne made 28 saves, and Ryan Jones, Jason Arnott, Martin Erat and Vernon Fiddler scored in the Nashville Predators' 4-2 victory over the Ducks on Thursday night. Corey Perry scored both goals for the Ducks. Jones opened the scoring at 11:19 of the first period, beating Jean-Sebastien Giguere with a slap shot to the glove side. Perry tied it with 1:44 left in the period, skating across the goalmouth and putting a backhander by Rinne's stick.

AT CALGARY Time: Noon On the air: TV: None. Radio: 830. Where: at Pengrowth Saddledome. Records: Ducks 26-24-5, Flames 30-17-4. Record vs. Flames: 1-1-0 Update: The Ducks, who have given up the first goal in eight consecutive games, will try to avoid their first three-game losing streak since they dropped the first four games of the season. Calgary has lost three in a row, and half of ex-King Mike Cammalleri's team-leading 26 goals have come on the power play.

Corey Perry took full advantage of a rookie mistake. Perry intercepted Calgary defenseman Adam Pardy's errant pass, broke in alone and snapped a shot that trickled past Curtis McElhinney with 28 seconds left in the second period in the Ducks' 2-1 victory Saturday. "I had my stick on the one side and I just moved it at the last second when he went to make the pass," Perry said. "It's nice to see it go in. They're a tough team to play against at home.

How quickly the Ducks have fallen, how dizzying their descent from 2007 Stanley Cup champions to a team that can't keep the puck out of its own net and on Sunday couldn't sustain a respectable effort against the Atlanta Thrashers, the second-worst team in the NHL. The Ducks' stumbles and first-round playoff exit last season could be written off to a post-Cup hangover and the on-and-off retirements of Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer.