Ducks overcome injuries and a tough Flames squad, with timely goals securing a thrilling overtime victory and extending their Pacific Division lead.
For the second game of their three-game Pacific Division road trip to Canada, the Anaheim Ducks traveled to Alberta to take on the Calgary Flames on Thursday evening.
The Ducks were coming off a 5-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday and were looking to extend their lead in the Pacific Division standings as well as extend their winning streak to four games.
Calgary came into this game with the fourth fewest points in the NHL standings, but were riding a four-game winning streak of their own. The Ducks traded forward Ryan Strome to the Flames at the NHL trade deadline earlier this month for a seventh-round pick, and this was to be Strome’s first game against his former club.
The Ducks’ lineup took a bit of a hit, as Troy Terry was ruled out of this game with a lower-body injury. Frank Vatrano was inserted into Terry’s spot on the first line. Jansen Harkins was injured early in Tuesday’s game and was also not featured in the lineup.
The Ducks recalled forward Nathan Gaucher from the San Diego Gulls earlier on Thursday, but he was scratched, as was Drew Helleson on the blueline. Ian Moore started the game as the fourth line right winger, and the remainder of the lineup remained somewhat steady to start.
Here’s how the Ducks lined up to start this game:
Kreider-Carlsson-Vatrano
Killorn-Granlund-Sennecke
Viel-Poehling-Gauthier
McTavish-Washe-Moore
LaCombe-Trouba
Mintyukov-Carlson
Zellweger-Gudas
Ville Husso got the start for the Ducks for the second time in their last three games and saved 23 of 25 shots in this one. For Calgary, Devin Cooley stood between the pipes and stopped 30 of 33.
Game Notes
The Ducks attempted to push tempo and manufacture chances early, but were thwarted by an effective Calgary forecheck, which broke up several plays with an active and effective F1 before they could build and were turned back toward Husso. As the game progressed and Anaheim generated the majority of power play opportunities, the game flow flipped, and they made safer plays up ice after going down 1-0 early in the second period.
Radko Gudas was forced out of this game with 7:38 remaining in the second period with a lower-body injury and would not return. Pavel Mintyukov blocked a shot in the seventh minute of the third period, which forced him to writh in pain on the ice until Calgary took a 2-1 lead. He returned for two shifts in the dying minutes of the game, aiding his tiring blueline mates.
At 5v5 in this game, the Ducks accounted for the majority of shots on goal (53.06%) and shot attempts (53.85%), but Calgary got shots off from better locations, accounting for 51.84% of the expected goals.
Mikael Granlund: If there were such a thing as a “veteran hat trick,” this was it. Two minutes after the Ducks surrendered yet another opening goal, Granlund finds space in the middle on the rush, uses a defender as a screen, and beats Cooley from distance.
Later, when Calgary takes a late penalty in the final five minutes of a one-goal game, Granlund gets to a spot to the right of Cooley where a perimeter rebound finds him, and he buries from a severe angle.
To finish this one off, Calgary takes another penalty in the last minute of overtime. In the final second of the extra period, he and John Carlson run a switch at the top of the left circle that puts Granlund in a one-time spot, and while fading away from the net, Granlund is able to beat Cooley from distance again, this time using Kreider’s screen in front.
With McTavish in the press box or in the bottom six of late, Granlund has stepped up offensively, utilizing his elite vision, tenacity, and hockey IQ to fill in the gaps left by a struggling young player. Granlund now has seven points (all goals) in his last four games, including five in his last two.
Power Play: Though he’s been resigned to fourth-line duties since returning from a pair of healthy scratches, McTavish has performed well on the power play and found ways to spark quality chances on the man advantage. He’s being utilized at the left flank, where he can draw toward the blueline to support his point defenseman (LaCombe) at the top of the umbrella.
From that spot, as is the case with Granlund on the Ducks’ other unit, McTavish can feed one-time attempts to the top of the umbrella. When that option isn’t available, he can attack downhill, looking for space to get his own shot off, hit the goal line release forward, find the bumper, or attempt a seam pass to the opposite flank, all plays McTavish has shown he has the ability to make from that spot.
The Ducks will wrap up their Western Canada road trip on Saturday with a matinee game against the team trailing them in the Pacific Division race: the Edmonton Oilers. This will be a true litmus test for this Ducks group and perhaps their most important game of the season to date.