All Goes Well, but Ducks Fall

Replacement officials kept a close watch over the Mighty Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night at Anaheim Arena. And for the most part, it seemed like NHL business as usual.

The substitute officials held their own, avoiding any serious gaffes. The Ducks played well enough to keep the game interesting. Toronto’s Doug Gilmour set up a goal and got booed.

And the Maple Leafs--thanks to two first-period goals by Dave Andreychuk--won, 4-3, before 17,083.

In summation, the better team won and there were no major controversies involving the officials.

Wendel Clark scored what turned out to the game-winning goal at the 13:48 mark of the second period. It was Clark’s 18th goal this season, tying him with Mike Modano of Dallas for the NHL lead.

This was the Ducks’ first game with substitute officials. The Maple Leafs played against Edmonton on Monday, the first night of the strike.

Michael E. Foy, a veteran minor league official who officiated some NHL games in the late 1970s, was Wednesday’s referee.

“A very acceptable job,” Dutch Van Deelen, supervisor of officials, said of Foy’s work. “I thought he handled a tough second period very well.”

Foy told Van Deelen he grew fatigued in the third period. “I felt tired in my legs, kind of like a fighter,” Foy said.

Don Moffat and Brian Farley of the International Hockey League were linesmen.

The three will probably work tonight’s Maple Leaf-King game, Van Deelen said.

Earlier in the day, the NHL announced that Canadian officials could work games in the United States. There had been some concern that replacements would not be granted proper work visas to work across the borders. But Moffat, a Canadian citizen, was able to work Wednesday night.

The league seems pleased with the replacements’ work so far.

“In both games (he has seen) the officiating has been more than competent,” said Brian Burke, senior vice president of hockey operations.

Burke dismissed complaints by Brett Hull of St. Louis that the replacement referee let obvious penalties go unpunished during the Blues’ 3-0 loss at Vancouver on Tuesday.

“That’s what I’d say if I got beat, 3-0, on the road,” Burke said. “They were a frustrated hockey team and Brett was a frustrated young man.

“The (replacements) have done well. But we still want to settle this thing.”

The two sides reportedly will meet again today to try to settle the strike, which begins its fourth day.

The Ducks’ Terry Yake didn’t seem overly concerned. “They’ve got eyes, just like everybody else,” Yake said of the new officials the other day.

Wednesday night, Yake helped the Ducks erase a 3-0 Toronto lead, scoring his seventh goal of the season to tie the score, 3-3, at the 9:41 mark of the second period.

But Clark broke the tie, beating Hebert with a wrist shot from 20 feet away about four minutes later.

“I suppose you’ve all seen the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” Coach Ron Wilson said after the Ducks’ third consecutive one-goal loss. “The alarm goes off and it’s the same thing all over again.”

Duck Notes

Left wing Troy Loney underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Wednesday morning at Centinela Hospital Medical Center. He is expected to be sidelined three to four weeks. The knee had been giving Loney trouble since the season began, but he played in the Ducks’ 3-2 loss Sunday at Vancouver. The Ducks’ captain leads the team in power-play goals with four. . . . Mark Ferner was scratched because of a strained groin muscle.