VIDEO: Ducks Take One Step Forward, Then Two Back
By Michael Walters
The Anaheim Ducks hosted the Ottawa Senators in their annual black Friday home game. Anthony Stolarz was in net against Cam Talbot.
Recap
The Ducks got a power play just over a minute into this game as Tim Stutzle was called for roughing against Simon Benoit. The two got tangled up near the boards and it appeared Stutzle hit Benoit in the fact with the butt end of his stick. Stutzle was called for a minor penalty only. Anaheim didn’t score on the power play.
The Ducks went back on the power play as Lassi Thomson was called for tripping halfway through the period. Again Anaheim couldn’t take advantage of the power play.
The Senators would get their first power play a Ryan Strome was called for tripping. Ottawa made it count as Brady Tkachuk scored to make it 1-0. Derick Brassard then made it 2-0 as he scored an easy tap in goal in the final minutes of the period. Jake Sanderson picked off a Trevor Zegras pass that sparked a 3-on-2 break for the score.
Anaheim started the second period on a power play as Travis Hamonic was called for interference at the end of the first period. Unfortunately, it was the same old story as the Ducks didn’t cash in.
The Ducks would then get into penalty trouble as they were called for the next three penalties in the second period. Stutzle would score on one of those to make it a 3-0 game. Artem Zub would then make it 4-0 with about five minutes to go in the period.
Ryan Strome delivered a check to Jake Sanderson and Brady Tkachuk took exception and the fight was on. The Ducks were already down one man and Strome got an additional two minutes for the cross check.
In the third, the Ducks survived the 5-on-3 power play by the Senators. Ottawa would score on another power play almost seven minutes into the final frame to make it 5-0.
Max Jones finally got the Ducks on the board with about three minutes to go. Ottawa challenged the goal for goalie interference, but the score counted. Anaheim went on to lose this one 5-1.
Analysis:
The Ducks felt good about themselves after getting their first regulation win against the New York Rangers on Wednesday. One might have thought the team could have built momentum off of it and bring it to this game, but that ended up not being the case. Instead the Ducks took one step forward on Wednesday, then two steps back on Friday.
Anaheim had chances to take the lead early in this one with two power plays. The Ducks played a solid first period outshooting the Senators 13 to 7 and they had a slight advantage 5-on-5 in terms of puck possession. Things changed towards the end when they couldn’t kill a Sens power play and then a late goal made it 2-0. From the second period on it was the Sens with the momentum as they built a 4-0 lead and never looked back.
Special teams played a big part in this contest. The Ducks had six power play chances and couldn’t score on any of them. Meanwhile the Sens scored three power plays goals on eight power plays. The Ducks got into penalty trouble too much with eight calls to the sin bin, which was a season high. Anaheim got away from playing discipline hockey especially in the second period where five of the penalties were called. The Ducks end the season series going 0-2-0 against the Sens.
Team News/Stats:
Nathan Beaulieu (arm) was recently activated off the IR and returned to action this game.
John Klingberg did not play. He was listed as having a lower-body injury according to the Ducks.
What’s Next?
The Ducks host the Seattle Kraken Sunda at 5 PM.
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November 25th, 2022