The Anaheim Ducks returned home to the Honda Center after their latest three-game road trip and having played five of their last six on the road. They entered play desperate to return to the win column and on a season-long three-game losing streak, which immediately followed an impressive seven-game winning streak.

They faced off against the Utah Mammoth for the first time this season, who, after a seven-game winning streak of their own, found themselves having only registered two wins in their last eight games.

Game #19: Ducks vs. Mammoth Gameday Preview (11/17/25)

Takeaways from the Ducks 2-0 Loss to the Wild

The Ducks saw the return of their captain Radko Gudas in this game, who had missed the last 11 games with a lower-body injury. He was inserted on the blueline on the right side of Ian Moore on the listed third pair, sending Pavel Mintyukov to the press box to serve as a healthy scratch.

The Ducks turned to Lukas Dostal in net for the 15th time in the team’s first 19 games this season. He stopped 16 of just 18 shots. He was opposed by Karel Vejmelka in the Utah crease, who saved 23 of 26.

Game Notes

This was one of the lowest-event games of the season for the Ducks, which has become more of a theme of late, now that the book is out and teams have settled into the season. The Ducks continue to have trouble mustering offense on the rush or elongated zone time on the cycle, but have buckled down defensively in their last two games.

The Ducks were able to do what good teams do when things aren’t going their way, and found a way to pull this win from the jaws of defeat with a late goal from Troy Terry in the dying seconds to send the game to overtime, where Olen Zellweger was able to bury a puck off the stick of Beckett Sennecke and capitalize on an aggressive Vejmelka.

“Any time you win, especially in that fashion, it maybe creates more of an energy. Just momentum as a team,” Terry said after the game. “I hope we take that and keep running with it.”

Offense: Utah, like the Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings, and Colorado Avalanche before them, were diligent on their backchecks through the middle to neutralize the Ducks’ biggest strength: rush offense. Puck carriers were hounded through the neutral zone and after entry, resulting in a lot of broken rushes.

To counter, the Ducks did well to establish a forecheck, especially in the third period, and went with more of a shot-volume approach in the second and third periods. Moving forward, the Ducks will have to find variety in their attacks to build a more dangerous overall offense.

“I though we were doing good things all game, but we were scoring so much to start the year and now, hopefully we can get back on the right side of things and kind of slingshot us, offensively,” Terry continued.

Defensive Zone Coverage: Utah went with a more “quality over quantity” approach to building their offensive game. They rarely took shots from the point, instead looking to released goal line forwards for passes or finding seams to far side wingers in the opposite circle.

An area that has plagued Anaheim this season has been their net front defense. Whether it’s not getting sticks on pucks, not blocking shots, or failing to tie up sticks, defensemen have been vulnerable around the crease. That wasn’t an issue in this game. Any puck that was funneled to the goal mouth or looking for a seam low in the zone was swatted away by the active sticks of the Ducks’ defensemen. However, Utah was able to exploit the seam under the far winger on both of their goals, which came from cross-ice passes. Overall, this was a positive defensive effort from Anaheim.

Zellweger-Trouba: This pair ate up 18:28 TOI together at 5v5 in this game. They continue to develop their chemistry, utilizing Trouba’s disruptive stick and Zellweger’s skating in support to break up attacks and turn them up ice quickly for a counter. They, along with the team as a whole, weren’t able to do their normal damage on the cycle, as Utah was efficient killing plays after the initial rush.

Their aggression nearly cost a late goal in the third period, when they both got caught too far up ice with a Utah forward behind them, but Zellweger did well to recover and eliminate Logan Cooley with a game-saving hit. He then, of course, put the game away with his overtime winner.

Cutter Gauthier: Gauthier has done well to improve his “B” game this season. Along with improved vision and playmaking prowess, he’s using his skating to disrupt puck-retrieving defenders on the forecheck and is getting to the net more often to screen and try to get tips on point shots.

Ryan Strome and Alex Killorn: Strome has had a positive impact on the lineup in his three games since returning from injury. He and Killorn both do a lot of the unnoticed, little things on a shift-by-shift basis to keep plays alive and moving north.

Killorn, knowingly not the fastest skater, scans and diagnoses opposing attacks, disrupts plays in dangerous locations, and finds ways to send his linemates on counters with clever outlets. The three assists between Strome and Killorn were earned in this game.

The Ducks will play the second of six straight home games on Wednesday, when they’ll host the visiting Boston Bruins.

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