Ducks, pushed to the limit, fall, 4-3

The Ducks went home Wednesday night with the zero in the regulation loss column intact. As for their play the last few games, that’s another story altogether.

Looking more like a team in survival mode than one imposing their will, the Ducks could not hang on to another third-period lead as Jaromir Jagr’s power-play goal in overtime lifted the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory in front of an announced 14,350 at the Honda Center.

The Ducks, who have the Western Conference’s best record at 9-0-4, twice blew two-goal leads Monday in St. Louis, including one late in the third, before managing to defeat the Blues in a shootout.

Jagr made sure Wednesday’s game didn’t get that far. Set up in the right circle, he smoked a slap shot past Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s glove to give the Rangers an impressive victory after a listless effort in a 4-1 loss to the Kings on Monday night.

“We played good in Phoenix and we were overconfident against the Kings,” said Jagr, whose 20 points leads the league. “We thought it would be easier and it cost us a game. This time we were ready.”

Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said there wasn’t much Giguere could do with Jagr’s shot.

“The only way you stop that is if the goaltender overplays it,” Carlyle said. “And then you take yourself out of [the play] with him faking it and giving it to somebody else for the wide-open net. That’s really the crux of it.

“He was right on the dot and it’s a one-time shot. We’ve seen him score those goals before.”

The Rangers got the power play at 2:50 of the overtime when Francois Beauchemin roughed up New York defenseman Aaron Ward in retaliation for a cross-check. Beauchemin was only the last in a string of Ducks that sat in the penalty box.

“I got punched in the back and punched in the face and I retaliated,” Beauchemin said. “I thought he was going to call both of us, but I was the only one in the box. Then they scored the power-play goal.”

Said Ward: “He swung and I saw it coming and I tried to move out of the way. He grazed my eye.”

The Ducks couldn’t hold onto a 3-2 lead forged by second-period goals from Chris Pronger and Ryan Getzlaf. Petr Prucha pulled the Rangers into a tie at 4:47 of the third after taking a slapshot off his left knee from Chris Kunitz in the second period.

Ducks defenseman Sean O’Donnell overran a puck in the corner of the Anaheim zone and the Rangers’ Brendan Shanahan quickly shot a backhanded pass to a cutting Matt Cullen. Giguere stopped Cullen on his doorstep but left a rebound for Prucha to bang in.

Giguere saved his teammates on a number of occasions. Adam Hall was denied in front with two minutes remaining and Karel Rachunek was stopped early in overtime.

In all, Giguere made 30 saves in another solid performance, but he was powerless against Jagr.

“Our challenge right now is to realize that we haven’t been at the top of our game lately,” Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer said. “We have to get back there and fight and do everything we can do to get focused on what we have to do as a team when we’re playing our best.”

Teemu Selanne ended his 10-game goal-scoring drought for the Ducks.