Coach Terry Murray was waiting patiently during Friday’s practice for somebody to make the mistake of passing up a chance to drive the net.

Five minutes into the drill, Murray made an example of Johan Garpenlov when he didn’t rush to the net when given an open lane.

The Panthers remembered, because that’s exactly what they did to avoid losing three in a row for the first time in Sunday night’s 5-2 victory against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at Arrowhead Pond.

Goalie Guy Hebert was the victim of 41 shots, but he kept the Panthers tamed in a 1-1 tie until they exploded for four goals in a 6:50 span of the third period, a stretch that included leading scorer Ray Whitney’s first-ever penalty-shot goal.

With the Panthers (26-26-17), masters of the tie and seemingly headed for their 18th, Radek Dvorak broke the game open when he shoved a wrap-around from behind the net between Hebert’s pads at 7:09.

Then Whitneyscored on the power play with the first of his two goals at 10:04.

Still, whenever Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne roam the ice, any two-goal lead is in jeopardy.

That’s why Whitney’s penalty-shot, for his 22nd goal of the season, was so critical. It came at 13:44 after he was hauled down by Pascal Trepanier on a breakaway.

That extended the lead to 4-1, and the Panthers did a fine job of finishing it out after Rob Niedermayer scored his 18th 15 seconds later.

The Ducks’ Ted Drury scored with 34.9 seconds left.

After giving up a fairly soft goal to rookie Oleg Kvasha 1:32 into the game, Hebert settled in and stopped the Panthers with some fine saves before Dvorak’s goal.

Hebert stopped rookie Dan Boyle’s break, then got hammered. He also made three clutch saves on a Panther power play early in the second, turning away Whitney (twice) and Mark Parrish. He also stopped Garpenlov and Chris Wells from the doorstep.

Whitney also clanked a blast off the crossbar.

Goalie Sean Burke also had an exceptioal night with 25 saves, making three valiant saves on Selanne. He also made a highlight-reel diving stop in the final seconds of the second period on Drury.

It didn’t take long for Kvasha to redeem himself after being scratched the night before in Los Angeles because of poor play.

Back in the lineup because of Scott Mellanby’s suspension for allegedly cross-checking Ray Ferraro, Kvasha scored his 12th goal early in the first period when the rebound of Bill Lindsay’s hard dump-in caromed off the boards right to a charging Kvasha in the faceoff circle.

Kvasha took the bad-angle shot, and it found its way past Hebert to the back of the net.

But the Mighty Ducks and their league-best power play tied the game at 1 a little more than four minutes later.

It started when Bret Hedican fell in the corner, allowing Tomas Sandstrom the room to get the puck to the front of the net.

With a scramble for the puck in front of Burke, Hedican recovered but lost Selanne in the process. Selanne buried his league-leading 40th goal.

The Panthers stayed within four points of eighth-place Boston and hope to have Pavel Bure return to the lineup this week.