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The Anaheim Ducks dropped both of their home games against the Dallas Stars this week but snapped their 11-game losing streak last night against the Arizona Coyotes.
The Stars opened the scoring in the first period on Tuesday, with Radek Faksa capitalizing after the Ducks were caught puck watching in their own end. The Ducks responded in the second period, with goals from Derek Grant and Troy Terry in the first half of the frame putting them ahead, but it didn’t last. Dallas took back their lead in the third period and goals from Roope Hintz and Jacob Peterson lead to a 3-2 Stars win.
On Thursday, the Stars controlled the first period, outshooting Anaheim 14-4, and went up 1-0 off a power play goal from Ryan Suter. Despite only managing six shots in the second period, Jamie Drysdale’s point shot somehow beat Jake Oettinger on a pretty terrible goal, sending the teams to the second intermission tied. After the Ducks had a better performance in the third period, Andrej Sekera put Dallas up once again with a late tally. However, Kevin Shattenkirk tipped in Urho Vaakanainen’s point shot under a minute later, sending the game to overtime. In the extra frame though, Jamie Benn beat John Gibson on a breakaway to win it for Dallas.
Anaheim came out strong against the Coyotes yesterday though, with Isac Lundestrom scoring just a few minutes into the game. Then Gerry Mayhew beat Karel Vejmelka on a shot that probably should’ve been stopped, before Trevor Zegras scored a ridiculous lacross-style goal to put the Ducks up 3-0 after 20 minutes. The Ducks continued to press in the back 40 minutes with goals from Cam Fowler in the second frame and then Lundestrom again in the third period resulting in a 5-0 win.
The Ducks were competitive in the games against the Stars, though they may have been lucky to get to overtime in the Thursday matchup.
That said, the win against the Coyotes was one of the strongest games the Ducks have played in a long time. They controlled a lot of the play, outshooting Arizona by a 37-22 margin and it was an emphatic win, even if it was their first in 12 games. The game did involve a scrum near the end of the third period though, which saw Jay Beagle throwing punches at Troy Terry, who didn't even drop his gloves.
Urho Vaakanainen also debuted with the Ducks, playing in all three of the games this week. He picked up an assist in the second game against the Stars and also played over 21 minutes against the Coyotes.
Though Anthony Stolarz picked up a shutout against Arizona, John Gibson had to make a lot of good saves in the two games against Dallas. He kept the Ducks in game for first 40 minutes on Thursday and looked better than he has as of late.
Anaheim now has 12 games remaining this season, the next of which comes tomorrow against the Edmonton Oilers.
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