A last-second goal and stellar goaltending snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in a thrilling 4-3 shootout against the Penguins.
To begin their five-game East Coast road trip, the Anaheim Ducks traveled to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday evening. The Ducks had won their prior two contests, and three of their last four as they remain atop the Pacific Division standings.
The Pens came into this game clinging to a wild card spot and having tallied five points of a possible six in their last three games.
The Ducks elected to go with the same lineup that earned them a historic 7-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
Ducks’ Husso Impressing In Extended Opportunity
The "Trouba Train" Appeared over the Weekend, Causing Injury and Sparking Discussion
Once again, the Ducks gave the crease to Ville Husso in this game, who got his fifth start in a row with the Ducks top two goaltenders each out for 2-3 weeks with injuries. The good news on that front is that starter Lukas Dostal, who hasn’t started a game since Nov. 22, traveled with the team on this five-game trip. Husso stopped 44 of 47 shots in this game.
The Pens gave their net to Arturs Silovs, who saved 26 of the 28 shots he faced. The Ducks’ third goal, awarded to Beckett Sennecke, in the dying SECOND of the game didn’t register as an official shot on goal.
Game Notes
This wasn’t one of the Ducks’ most polished efforts on the season, to say the least. Visibly, the Ducks weren’t run out of the building, as they had several sequences through the neutral zone and deep in the offensive zone where pucks remained on their stick while pressuring. However, the Pens controlled the majority of play and were able to manufacture the lion’s share of interior chances.
By any metric, this wasn’t a pretty win for Anaheim. At 5v5, they lost the shots on goal battle 33-20, the shot attempts battle 66-41, and only held 22% of the expected goals share (4.37-1.23). Again and though likely unsustainably so, the Ducks pulled out a victory from the jaws of defeat with some stellar goaltending and the timeliest of equalizing goals with 0.1 seconds left on the game clock.
Defensive Zone Coverage: Though the Ducks didn’t exactly have the net front breakdowns that have plagued them this season, costing them countless goals against, they weren’t notably stingy in their end. Pittsburgh elected to keep a very high F3, often along the blueline, when cycling in their offensive zone, and would send down a weak-side attacker to the back post when they won loose pucks back. This caused the center to make a tough decision on whether to pressure out to the blueline or remain low in the zone with his defensemen, and it caused wingers to remain hyper-aware when monitoring their point man, who could activate at any moment.
Miscommunication or delayed reads from the forwards opened up East/West seams from circle to circle, leading to shots that were followed by quality rebound attempts, as Ducks defenders scrambled to remain in position.
When Anaheim won corner, net front, or wall battles deep in their zone, they were often forced to rim pucks up the wall, as that high F3 acted as a free safety, thwarting breakout opportunities. Those rims were, more often than not, cut off by a Pens’ point defenseman, which kept several extended possessions alive.
Rush Defense: The Ducks seemed determined not to make catastrophic neutral zone mistakes, which had led to numerous outnumbered attacks this season. However, that left the defensemen to play a more passive brand of rush defense, which Pittsburgh exploited when the Ducks were lacking back pressure. The Pens were able to gain easy entry and build plays with connecting passes from the top of the zone, utilizing their downhill speed.
Cycle: The Ducks weren’t particularly stingy in their end, but the Pens were. The Ducks were afforded and worked for possession, with time and space, in the offensive corners, but struggled to get inside positioning or establish a meaningful forecheck against Pittsburgh’s defensemen. The Pens kept plays to the perimeter and made easy, simple breakout passes after efficient retrievals in their end.
Leo Carlsson: Due to the Pens’ ability to keep pucks alive in their offensive end, the Ducks’ rush attack was mostly neutralized in this game. This isn’t the first time the Ducks have faced an opponent intending to limit Anaheim’s rush attack, and to this point, they’ve been hit or miss with their adjustments. The leader of the Ducks' offensive firepower is Leo Carlsson, who had a difficult time creating meaningful chances.
With both his “A” and “B” offensive games eliminated, Carlsson struggled to make an impact on the defensive side of the puck. Especially early in the game, he watched a bit too many pucks in coverage, and he wasn’t able to diagnose and break up opposing rush attempts, an area in which he’d been effective in the past. It wasn’t a concerning effort from Carlsson, but the Ducks are going to need him to battle through adversity so they can rely on him when needed, as is required from the true superstars of the NHL.
Ville Husso: Husso faced shots from everywhere in this game, including 47 on net and 25 high-danger chances. He was relied on, like Dostal before injury, to singlehandedly keep the Ducks in this game and give them a chance to win. He accomplished the task by saving a total of 3.46 goals above expected.
He fought through traffic and did well to track pucks high in the zone while remaining tight on his angles. He struggled a bit with pucks in tight, often attempting poke checks or moving off his short side post; minor nitpicks to an otherwise spectacular performance from the Ducks’ third-string netminder.
The Ducks will look for another two points, hopefully with a better underlying process, on Thursday, when they’ll travel to Long Island to take on the New York Islanders.
Takeaways from the Ducks 7-1 Victory over the Blackhawks