Devils Blank Lifeless Ducks : NHL: A night after beating Rangers, Anaheim gets just 17 shots in 4-0 loss.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Hardly 24 hours after celebrating their first road victory and the first hat trick in team history, the Mighty Ducks recorded another first Wednesday.

They were shut out.

The unbeaten New Jersey Devils pushed aside the Ducks, 4-0, behind three third-period goals before 14,009 at the Meadowlands Arena.

Martin Brodeur, New Jersey’s 21-year-old goaltender, recorded his first NHL shutout without too much effort. He had to make only 17 saves. The Ducks didn’t manage their first shot on goal until 10 minutes into the game, and they had only five in each of the first two periods.

The night after beating the Rangers in New York, the Ducks were off their game.

“I think we were a little flat-footed tonight and that’s understandable,” Duck goaltender Ron Tugnutt said. “We played a very exciting game against the Rangers (Tuesday night). It was very draining.”

Tugnutt made 35 saves and earned praise from his teammates and Coach Ron Wilson. But he allowed two goals in 74 seconds early in the third period.

Alexander Semak made it a two-goal lead 38 seconds into the third period, when he pounced on a rebound that was fluttering uncovered in the crease. Tugnutt didn’t find it, and none of his teammates saved him.

About a minute later, Scott McKay’s shot from the right circle beat Tugnutt, who was screened, and the Devils had a 3-0 lead at 1:46 of the third.

The other goals--both on power plays--were scored by Claude Lemieux and former King Corey Millen.

“In the other games, the defense and everybody in general has been clearing rebounds,” Tugnutt said. “I just don’t think we were playing as well as in other games so far, whether it be jumping on loose pucks or bumping and grinding or outworking the other team.

“We have to outwork the opponent. We don’t have the talent. We were tired from a great game yesterday, emotionally as much as anything.”

Since a 7-2 loss to Detroit in their first game, the Ducks had gone 2-1-2 with the only loss coming in overtime. This was their second-poorest performance, but they said it felt nothing like the first.

“The difference tonight was we were in the game till the third period,” team captain Troy Loney said. “The first time we were untested and unknown. The thing is, now we know we can play well. We know what we have to do to win. It’s comforting to know what that is.”

Said Wilson: “We just didn’t have the legs.”

The Ducks’ 4-2 upset of the Rangers Tuesday included Terry Yake’s first NHL hat trick. On Wednesday, Yake managed only two shots on goal.

“For me, I didn’t feel overly tired,” Yake said. “I had a hard time getting going because of the flow of the game. Whenever we got opportunities going, we blew it ourselves taking stupid penalties. I don’t want to blame it on tired legs. A lot of times during the year you play two games in two days. And it’s not as though we traveled. It was a 20-minute bus ride.”

Loney, who won two Stanley Cup rings with Pittsburgh, laughed at the idea that either the victory or the loss was momentous.

“I’ve seen better highs and I’ve seen worse lows. You’ve got to find an even keel,” he said. “When we beat a team everybody says we’re not expected to beat, we can’t just say, ‘We don’t have to work now.’

“We can’t just rest on our laurels--we don’t have any. We’re building new things here.”

Notes

Duck right wing Todd Ewen did not play after suffering a broken nose and slight concussion Tuesday. He was replaced by Robin Bawa. . . . Defensemen Alexei Kasatonov and Myles O’Connor, both former Devils, started Wednesday.