ANAHEIM — The Ducks rode three unanswered goals to get past the New York Rangers, 5-3, on Monday night at Honda Center.
It was their fourth consecutive victory, a palate-cleansing streak after they lost nine straight games, including eight regulation defeats. The Rangers lost for the ninth time in 11 opportunities.
With the win they moved into a points tie with San Jose for third place in the Pacific Division after the Sharks beat the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to spoil Matthew Tkachuk’s season debut.
Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier, who turned 22 on Monday, scored two goals in the final 18:59 of the tilt. Mason McTavish, the newest Duck Jeffrey Viel and Alex Killorn all lit the lamp. Lukáš Dostál stopped 19 shots to win his third consecutive start after a string of six losses. Chris Kreider (illness) returned to action after two games away.
Artemi Panarin victimized the Ducks’ penalty killers with a goal and an assist with the extra man. J.T. Miller, who has 12 points in 11 games, assisted on Panarin’s goal and another by Matthew Robertson. Vincent Trochek matched Miller’s assist total. Spencer Martin made 21 saves.
The Ducks seemed determined to do things the hard way late after going up 4-2 on Gauthier’s third-period goal, but they pulled through.
Between a pair of penalties and the time the Rangers spent six-on-five with Martin pulled, the Ducks essentially spent the final 5:50 of the contest shorthanded. Yet they weathered that storm, including a wild stretch with three point-blank attempts while down two men, until Gauthier slammed the door with an empty-netter with 36 seconds left.
They had already allowed two power-play goals, including one at 7:11. There was little luck involved when Panarin served up a one-timer for Gavrikov, one that whizzed past a lethargic Killorn.
The hosts padded their lead after a savvy pinch by Drew Helleson stunted a breakout and stole the puck. He hit Gauthier for a shot from between the circles, 61 seconds into the final frame.
Initially, the Ducks followed the same script in the second period as they did the first, falling down by a goal and then equalizing. They then earned their first lead of the night via Killorn’s man-advantage marker.
It was two former Rangers setting the scene for the goal. Kreider finally dug the puck out of a protracted puck battle behind the net – which involved a third ex-Blueshirt, Ryan Strome – sliding it back to the point for Jacob Trouba. His blast got most of the way through Martin, who got no support from puck-watching Will Borgen as Killorn backhanded the rebound in from the inside the blue paint.
Killorn’s fifth goal of the campaign was his third of the month, after scoring just two across October, November and December.
They pulled back even on Viel’s first goal as a Duck and the fourth of his career.
Relentless forechecking from Gauthier, Ryan Poehling and Viel propelled the effort. After the latest in a series of takeaways inside the Rangers’ zone, Poehling flung a shot from above the left circle that banked off Martin’s right pad to Viel, who scored confidently at 8:29.
The Rangers had converted on the power play, 4:26 earlier. As Trocheck burst down the right wing after New York’s entry, Panarin hung out at the blue line, timing his engagement expertly to when he read Tim Washe’s deep position to defend a seam. “The Bread Man” zoomed ahead to the right hash marks and roofed a shot far side. Both Panarin and Trocheck have been the subject of trade speculation amid the Rangers’ struggles and recent letter to their fans announcing more changes were afoot.
After 20 minutes, the Ducks went to the dressing room level, 1-1, as McTavish continued the hot play that has seen him score in consecutive games after netting the shootout winner in his prior outing.
He spearheaded the Ducks’ zone entry and their cycle before eventually scoring their tying goal. An activated Pavel Mintyukov delivered a spinning centering attempt from his knees that banked off Robertson and went straight to McTavish for a short-side strike, his 13th tally of the season.
Failure to clear the puck cost the Ducks on the game’s first goal. Miller moved the puck out of the corner to Mika Zibanejad, whose between-the-legs touch pass found Robertson. He fired a shot from above the left circle that got a chunk of Dostál on its way into the net, four minutes into the match.
Next up, the Ducks head to Colorado for a Wednesday game that begins a five-game trip that also stops in Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
More to come on this story.
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