VIDEO: Ducks Lose To Canadiens In Overtime

Photo: AP

By Richard Gonzalez

The Anaheim Ducks were hosted by the Montreal Canadians on their first game of back-to-backs. The Ducks were coming in with a 2-1 shootout win against the Ottawa Senators and Canadians were coming off a 5-4 win against the New Jersey Devils.

Nicolas Deslauriers made his first trip back to Montreal since he was acquired by the Ducks. John Gibson and Carey Price would each get the start for their respective teams. Unfortunately, some bad penalties, lack of power play goals and not pressuring in overtime caused the Ducks to drop this game 3-2.

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The Canadians would take the game’s first two penalties as Victor Mete (delay of game) and Ben Chiarot (hooking) were each called for minor infractions but the Ducks did not convert. The Chiarot penalty was questionable because it appeared he took down Jakob Silfverberg while he was on a partial breakaway and could have been a penalty shot. The Ducks outshot the Canadians by a 2-1 margin but they would end up scoring the game’s first on the power play, which was from Nick Ritchie’s “interference” call.

The game even upped in tempo as the teams started the second. Ryan Getzlaf took a slashing penalty but the Ducks were able to keep the Canadians in the neutral zone for most of the two minutes. Silfverberg would tie the game up when he scored his goal from Rickard Rakell and Jacob Larsson. That was short-lived as Brendan Gallagher’s wrist shot went five-hole on Gibson. The Ducks would take another minor penalty which they killed off and remained down 2-1 after two periods.

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Derek Grant would open up the scoring in the third to tie the game from a feed from Carter Rowney. This was Grant’s 12th goal of the season, which ties his career-high. The Ducks would find themselves in some trouble as Ritchie (Hooking) and Josh Manson (tripping) took consecutive bad penalties a few minutes apart. Luckily, the Ducks were able to kill both of them. Silfverberg had a good chance but was denied by Price. The third period would end in a 2-2 tie. The overtime period took only 25 seconds for the Canadians to score and beat the Ducks.

Analysis:

The Ducks lost this game but they played better than they did against the Senators. Once again, the power play did not convert and that has been a theme of this season. It almost seems like teams are willing to take bad penalties; hence, Chiarot’s penalty. The penalty kill was good again but the highlight of tonight’s game was Grant. He had a few good chances and scored a goal. I can see other GM’s calling for him as the trade deadline approaches. The biggest mistake of the game was the Ducks allowing Jeff Petry skate in without any pressure and just watched him score on Gibson. The best thing was they outshoot the Canadians. The little things, right?

What’s Next?

The next game is tomorrow (02/07) against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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February 6th, 2020