Ducks Rally Falls Short In Tampa Bay

Photo: AP

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks continued their road trip in Tampa Bay against the Lightning. Radko Gudas sustained a lower-body injury in the last game against Boston and did not play. Ian Moore drew in his place. Chris Kreider missed his third game due to an illness. Lukas Dostal was in net against Jonas Johansson.

Tampa Bay scored just over nine minutes into this contest. Jake Guentzel took a shot which Dostal blocked, but Guentzel got to the rebound and scored into the partially open net.

Ross Johnston and Emil Martinsen Lilleberg dropped the gloves with about four minutes left in the period.

Anaheim tied it up early in the second period. Off of a face-off win, Troy Terry passed the puck to Jacob Trouba and he beat Johansson with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle.

Tampa Bay retook the lead 2-1 when Guentzel scored this second goal of the game. Nikita Kucherov found Guenztel at the side of the net for an easy tap in goal

The Lightning then extended their lead to 3-1 later in the middle frame. Anthony Cirelli got to a rebound and backhanded the puck past Dostal. Tampa Bay held a two goal advantage after two periods.

Anaheim did fight back in the third period and scored two times in about a minute to tie the game up. Johnston found Ryan Poehling in the slot and he beat Johansson low. Cutter Gauthier then tried to score from the left face-off circle and the puck deflected to Troy Terry, who sent it home.

Tampa Bay would get a power play with just over four minutes to go and Cirelli would score his second of the game to make it a 4-3 contest. Anaheim couldn’t find the equalizer and lost by one.

Analysis:

The Ducks gave up the first goal again and then found themselves down 3-1, but were able to rally to tie things up before losing. Anaheim put up a CF% of 52.43% and FF% of 51.95% at even strength. The Ducks even ended up with 40 shots on goal to 33 for the Lightning. The problem again has been the Ducks give up too many quality scoring chances. Tampa Bay had 14 high danger chances to just 7 for the Ducks.

Anaheim was also not discipline in this contest as they were called for six penalties. They were able to kill off 5 of those 6 power plays for Tampa Bay. The Ducks had two power plays, but couldn’t convert. They are 1-for-10 without Chris Kreider on the man advantage.

The Ducks got down 3-1 and were able to fight back to tie the game at three apiece. The frustrating part of this contest came in the final 2+ minutes, when Anaheim could not control the puck to even pull Dostal. Tampa Bay forechecked the final minutes away in the third period to hold on and win this contest 4-3.

Despite the loss there were some positives in this game. Johnston and Trouba don’t get enough credit for his offensive game. Johnston assisted on  Anaheim’s second goal and had a fight. He almost had back-to-back Gordie Howe hat tricks. Trouba has goals in back-to-back games and is tied with Helleson for the team lead in goals by defensemen.

Terry is starting to heat up with three goals in his last three games and six points (3 G + 3 A) in his last four contests. Gauthier led the team with 7 shots on goal and had an assist. He leads the team with five goals so far this season.

Team Notes/Stats:

The Ducks have given up the first goal in 7 of their 8 games so far this season.

Mikael Granlund was injured at the end for the first period and did not return in this contest.

What’s Next?

The Ducks will play the Florida Panthers on Tuesday at 4 PM.

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Oct 25th, 2025