Ducks Get 1st Victory, Beat Oilers : Hockey: Anaheim grabs a four-goal lead and then has to hang on for 4-3 victory over Edmonton.

And the answer to the future trivia question is . . . the Edmonton Oilers.

The Mighty Ducks defeated the Oilers, 4-3, in front of 15,570 Wednesday at Anaheim Arena for the expansion team’s first victory.

They did it the hard way, allowing a four-goal lead to be trimmed to one. But they did it.

The crowd stood and cheered at the one-minute warning, thundered its approval at goaltender Ron Tugnutt’s final, clutch saves and at every clearing pass as Edmonton tried desperately to force overtime. The zero in the Ducks’ victory column is gone.

“Our players worked their butts off and deserved to win,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “Our team has bounced back from that disastrous opening night (a 7-2 loss to Detroit). It shows they have a lot of courage.”

The Ducks threatened to blow out the Oilers, taking a 4-0 lead before Edmonton scored in the second period, but it was a nail-biter in the final seconds as Edmonton scrambled to tie.

Tugnutt--Edmonton’s backup goalie last season--fended off the Oilers’ last, frantic attempts, making two saves after a faceoff in his end with 51.4 seconds left to win.

“It got a little tense there at the end,” said Tugnutt, who made 28 saves.

It took three games for the Ducks to win one--just as it did their expansion companion, the Florida Panthers, and just as it did for San Jose two years ago. Last season, Ottawa and Tampa Bay won their opening games.

“There’s a certain sense of relief and satisfaction,” said right wing Terry Yake, who set up the second-period goal by defenseman Bill Houlder that proved to be the game-winner. “We’d worked very hard, right from Day 1 of training camp, and basically had no results. Exhibition games don’t count, and we didn’t win our first two games. Now we’re on the board. Now it’s time to start adding to it. The first one seems to be the hardest to get. It’s like your first goal of the season. Once you get that out of the way, you can go on.”

The Ducks’ lead was still 4-1 after two periods; Edmonton was unable to score on Tugnutt until Igor Kravchuk’s goal on the power play at 9:54 of the second. But the Oilers came out in the third and cut the lead to two goals at 1:35 of the third on Vladimir Vujtek’s goal.

The Ducks’ grip was loosened further when defenseman Alexei Kasatonov received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for high-sticking Shayne Corson who was skating by the Ducks’ net at 7:17 of the third.

The Oilers trimmed the lead to one midway through the five-minute power play, when Corson slid a pass across the slot to an open Zdeno Ciger, whose goal made the score 4-3 at 8:51.

The Ducks managed to kill off the rest of the penalty. It still seemed like forever between them and the end of the game, but they made it.

“I’m a little disappointed in the way we finished up,” said Wilson, who said he felt more confident during Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders than he did during the third period Wednesday.

Things went the Ducks’ way almost from the opening faceoff. Only 24 seconds into the game, they went on the power play after defenseman Ian Herbers was called for hooking Joe Sacco, who was threatening to break away.

Thirty seconds into the power play--and still less than a minute into the game--Troy Loney gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead when he swept in a rebound from in front of the net after defenseman Sean Hill’s slap shot from the right point caromed off goaltender Bill Ranford.

The Ducks’ chances kept multiplying. They lost a golden one when Anatoli Semenov wasn’t able to score from in front of the net after Ranford slipped, leaving an open net.

Steven King put the Ducks ahead, 2-0, when he shook a defender, skated into the slot, and swept the puck past Ranford.

The Ducks scored again before the end of the first period--the first scoreless period by a Duck opponent. Joe Sacco made the lead 3-0 with 29 seconds left in the period when he took a pass in the right circle from defenseman Myles O’Connor and beat Ranford on his glove side.

Ranford was done after that, and didn’t return for the second period. Oiler Coach Ted Green sent out rookie Fred Brathwaite, 21, who was making his NHL debut.

The Ducks’ stretched the lead to 4-0 when defenseman Bill Houlder scored at 7:14 of the second after taking a perfect pass in the slot from Yake, who faked a shot and then curled around a fallen defender to make the pass.

“They played a great game,” Brathwaite said. “We played very poorly as a team. (Coach Ted Green) put me in the game hoping to give the team a spark. I tried to come in and play my best. On the goal I gave up, which was the winner, I played very poorly.”