Goalies Are Pared to Three

The goalie situation was clarified when team officials trimmed the roster from 48 to 34 players Monday.

J.F. Damphousse was one of 14 players sent to minor league Cincinnati’s training camp, which leaves Martin Gerber as the Ducks’ probable No. 2 goalie. Gerber and Ilja Bryzgalov are the only goalies left as possible backups to Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Gerber is expected to win that competition, although Duck officials see more potential in the 21-year old Bryzgalov.

He probably will go to Cincinnati, where he will play every day.

“If I stay in Anaheim, I’ll play 10 games,” said Bryzgalov, a second-round pick in 2000. “I need to play 70 games this season to get experience. I’m young. I have time.”

Gerber, on the other hand, isn’t so young at 28. An eighth-round pick in 2001, he is playing his first season in North America after having played in Europe.

“I’m 28, so the Ducks don’t have time to build me up,” Gerber said. “I don’t have as much time, so I need to do it now.”

Damphousse, who was acquired in a trade with New Jersey, played only the third period against the Kings on Sunday, stopping two of three shots.

“We watched him [in camp] and we think where he’s going is where he should be,” Coach Mike Babcock said.

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Joffrey Lupul, the Ducks’ No. 1 draft pick in June, participated in contract drills the last two days. Lupul missed the first part of camp while recovering from a hairline fracture in a lower vertebra.

His chances of making the team are slim but he may play in this weekend’s exhibition games.

“He’ll have to earn a spot in the lineup,” Babcock said.