VIDEO: Avs Double Up Ducks

Photo: USA Today

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks continued their road trip in Colorado. Max Comtois drew back in the lineup as he came off the OCVID protocol list, but Ryan Getzlaf was added to the list. Cam Fowler was able to suit up after his nasty spill into the boards a few games ago. John Gibson was in net against Darcy Kuemper.

Recap

The Ducks were able to strike first in this game. Sam Carrick followed up a rebound and gave Anaheim an early 1-0 lead. Both teams had power play chances in the first period, but neither team converted.

Anaheim would extend the lead in the second period on the power play. Max Comtois would find Cam Fowler driving to the net and he would redirect the puck past Kuemper to make it 2-0 Anaheim.

The Avs did breakthrough on the power play to pull within one. There was also a delayed penalty on the Ducks, so the Avs went back on the power play. Colorado didn’t score on the second power play and the Ducks held a 2-1 advantage after two periods.

Colorado had an early power play in the third period and Gabriel Landeskog scored to tie the game at two. The teams battled back and forth with the game appearing that it might go to overtime. Instead the Avs would score on a 3-on-1 rush with 1:11 left to take a 3-2 lead. The Ducks then pulled Gibson for the extra attacker, but the Avs scored again to make it a 4-2 final.

Analysis (Stats Per Natural Stat Trick)

The Ducks came out much stronger in this game as opposed to their last one against Vegas. Anaheim was able to build a 2-0 lead, but they couldn’t hold on. The Ducks held a 51.61 CF% and 54.17 FF% in the first period at even strength, but then the Avs stepped up their game.

The Ducks had 48 shot attempts to 60 for the Avs. Anaheim’s CF% was 45.12% and FF% was 48.44% at even strength for the entire game. At even strength the GF% for Anaheim was 1.91 and for Colorado it was 1.96. Not bad considering they were without Getzlaf, Zegras, and Henrique.

The Ducks did take too many penalties again like they did in Las Vegas. Unlike the game against the Golden Knights, the penalty kill did hurt the Ducks as they gave up two goals while shorthanded five times.

The good news is Zegras should come out of the COVID protocol and hopefully return this week.

What’s Next?

The Ducks host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday at 7 PM PT.

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January 2nd, 2022