Konopka Scores a Big KO

DALLAS — Mighty Duck forward Zenon Konopka was a clear loser in a scuffle with Dallas Star forward Bill Guerin in the first minute Friday night. And yet the rookie came out ahead.

Konopka, a pest by trade, didn’t think he did all that much to get the veteran out of the game. But there was Guerin, with 323 goals, leaving the ice 53 seconds into the first period after drawing a two-minute instigator penalty, a five-minute major for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct.

“[Steve] Ott took a run on me and Fridge [Todd Fedoruk] came in and grabbed him,” Konopka said. “I came over to fight Ott and grabbed him. And then Bill Guerin came in and I wasn’t expecting him to throw punches.

“I got hit by a couple of pretty good punches. It’s not the first time I’ve been suckered in my life. I’ll take a sucker punch every game if it’s going to take a guy like Guerin out of the lineup.”

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The Ducks scored twice on the power play in their three-goal first period, but most of their remaining chances provided few scoring opportunities while also giving up Brenden Morrow’s short-handed goal that swung the momentum in the third period.

The unit -- primarily Teemu Selanne, Andy McDonald, Joffrey Lupul, Scott Niedermayer and Francois Beauchemin -- drew criticism from goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who said it wasn’t working hard enough.

“In the last couple of weeks, our power play in practice has been horrible,” Giguere said. “It’s been outworked every time we try the power play in practice and that’s the result you get in the game.”

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TONIGHT

at Minnesota, 5 PST, FSNW2

Site -- Xcel Energy Center.

Radio -- 1090.

Records -- Ducks 18-15-7; Wild 19-18-4.

Record vs. Wild (2005-06) -- 0-1-1.

Update -- The Wild has the league’s best penalty-killing unit with 25 goals in 225 (88.9%) short-handed situations.