Ducks fight back from a deficit, score timely goals, and secure a crucial win. Gauthier ignites the offense in a back-and-forth thriller.
The novelty has worn off. The stage is understood. For the Anaheim Ducks, the eight-year playoff drought is an afterthought. They faced off against the Edmonton Oilers for game 2 of their seven-game first-round series on Wednesday night in Edmonton.
The Ducks dropped the opening game of the first round on Monday, allowing the game-winning goal with 1:54 remaining on the game clock.
Anaheim kept Connor McDavid off the scoresheet in Game 1, and it felt like losing that game was a missed opportunity.
The Oilers lost fourth-line center and top penalty killer Adam Henrique early in Game 1, and he was ruled out for Game 2. He was replaced in the Edmonton lineup by Josh Samanski.
Jason Dickinson was a game-time decision, and ultimately, that decision was that one of the Game 1 heroes couldn’t play in Game 2. He was replaced on his line by Colton Dach, while Curtis Lazar filled in on the fourth line.
For the Ducks, Radko Gudas, who didn’t play in the final ten minutes of Game 1, was ruled out for this game with an undisclosed injury, and Drew Helleson replaced him on his pair alongside Tyson Hinds.
Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville made a (very) last-second adjustment with his lineup, swapping Cutter Gauthier and Chris Kreider onto the first and third lines, respectively.
Here’s how the Ducks lined up in this game:
Gauthier-Carlsson-Terry
Killorn-Granlund-Sennecke
Kreider-Poehling-McTavish
Viel-Washe-Moore
LaCombe-Trouba
Mintyukov-Carlson
Hinds-Helleson
Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks and saved 33 of 37 shots. He was opposed by Connor Ingram, who stopped 22 of 27.
Game Notes
The Ducks didn’t come out of the locker room as wide-eyed as they perhaps they may have in Game 1, and instead, traded pressure with Edmonton from puck drop. Unfortunately, and somewhat undeservedly, a bad bounce on a centering feed out of the corner from Leon Draisaitl put the Ducks down in the first period again, needing to battle back.
The Ducks, in fact, battled back with three unanswered, leaving themselves having to defend a lead, another aspect that has been difficult for them all season, and especially early in these playoffs.
Though they returned more pressure than previously, Edmonton still expectedly got the bulk of the chances, and tied the game at 4-4 with 6:09 remaining, providing a similar script to Monday. However, the Ducks continued with their preferred play style, and just over a minute later, got the game-winning tally from Cutter Gauthier, followed by an empty-netter from Ryan Poehling.
“I thought we had more zone time, more puck possession,” Quenneville said after the game. “Had to fight back again when they tied it up. At that time of the game, we had a really good period, and it was like, ‘Oh no. Here we go again.’
“Same kind of timing of giving up the goal, and here they go. But we settled in and scored some timely goals tonight. I thought we really played well across the board. Everybody played hard, and everybody was doing the little things well, and we did a lot of sacrificing, and we met one of our objectives coming in here to this two-game set.”
Lukas Dostal-Dostal’s save percentage was only .892, and he allowed -0.79 above expected, but he made several difficult saves look easy in this one. He’s been criticized for not handling deflected shots well, but was subtly spectacular in this one in that area. Edmonton saw an area to exploit, sending bodies to the front to win battles for perimeter shots, but Dostal was up to the task.
Another area of Dostal’s game typically taken for granted is his puck-tracking. On several occasions, Connor McDavid was able to feed teammates in the mid-slot, and Dostal was able to square up to pucks as they moved off the wall, presenting himself big, and had shots hit him and stick to his chest.
Cutter Gauthier-Gauthier’s surprise appearance on the Ducks’ top line to start the game was a cheeky move by Quenneville, and proved to be the right button to push. The goal was to manufacture puck touches, and that goal was achieved, with Carlsson and Terry doing most of the puck carrying, leaving Gauthier free to find soft ice off-puck and get his plus shot off.
His three shots and six shot attempts was a more familiar stat line than his one shot and two attempts in Monday’s game 1. An understated part of his game, and from his team as a whole, was his effort level on backchecks. Because it was Carlsson and Terry with pucks on their sticks, Gauthier was often the high F3 and had to pressure McDavid and Edmonton puck-transporters through neutral ice and into the defensive zone.
Defensive Zone-The Ducks’ fourth line started 13 shifts at 5v5 together, seven started in the defensive zone and six in the neutral zone. Washe was a whopping 12 for 19 at the dot, and that prowess kept important pucks off the sticks of Edmonton’s top players, at least to start shifts, down the stretch.
The Ducks inexplicably struggled to get seemingly easy pucks past their own blueline in the final stages, which led to the Oilers’ tying fourth goal. They understandably didn’t want to sit on a lead, but better puck management down the stretch in a meaningful area on the ice would have kept heart rates down a bit.
The opening series between the Ducks and Oilers will shift to Orange County on Friday for a 7 pm PST puck drop, tied at 1-1 and with the Ducks now possessing home ice advantage.