ANAHEIM — Down the road from Disneyland, the Ducks got on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, blowing a two-goal lead in the third period but managing to get the game to a shootout, where they’ve shined all season.
They moved to 8-0-0, triumphing 6-5 over the Montreal Canadiens after a six-round shootout that featured just three conversions on Friday night at Honda Center.
The Ducks won for the 14th time in their past 17 games and the seventh time during their eight-game homestand. The Habs dropped a second straight time following a seven-game points streak.
Chris Kreider had a game-high four points (goal, three assists) in a high-scoring game. Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson kept cooking with a goal and an assist apiece, equaling the output of Jackson LaCombe. Radko Gudas also scored, while Jacob Trouba chipped in two assists. Lukáš Dostál stopped just 23 of 28 shots.
Cole Caufield spearheaded the Montreal effort with two goals and an assist to match the point total of Lane Hutson (goal, two assists). Nick Suzuki contributed a goal and an assist. Alexandre Carrier also scored. Juraj Slafkovský and Noah Dobson each had two helpers. Samuel Montembeault made 28 stops.
After Gauthier and rookie standout Ivan Demidov converted, it was Alex Killorn delivering the winner deep into the shootout. Mason McTavish failed to score for the first time in six shootout tries this season, but the Ducks earned their 19th comeback win of the season, matching Montreal for the league lead.
Dostál made two stellar saves on Demidov and Slafkovský early in overtime, and the Ducks killed a full two minutes of four-on-three time to close out OT.
In the third period, the Ducks appeared to take a commanding lead at 4-2, but they conceded three consecutive goals to fall behind for the second and more critical time, only to equalize in the dying embers.
Trouba, who had a goal disallowed 20 seconds into the match, created one for Kreider, a redirection tally, with 41 seconds left to ensure the affair exceeded 60 minutes.
Caufield came up with a twisted tip-in goal, deflecting Dobson’s shot improbably as 6:56 showed on the clock.
Carrier scored off a snap shot to pull even with 8:13 to play to cap a strong forechecking effort.
Following a faceoff win in the offensive zone, Caufield smoked a shot from the left dot to give the Habs life at 8:41.
That was 8:06 after Carlsson finished a two-on-one after a patient effort to deliver a saucer pass by Kreider.
Montreal didn’t record a shot on goal for more than 14 minutes and then failed to convert on two second-period power plays. Then, it was the Ducks netting the only goal of the frame, a man-advantage marker at 12:15.
LaCombe and Gauthier exchanged the puck high before LaCombe fired a one-timer from the blue line, a point from which Montembeault seemed to have trouble reading the puck on Friday. LaCombe has seven goals, half of last season’s total, through 62 games.
Dostál stoned Demidov on a breakaway with under seven minutes to go to preserve that lead through 40 minutes.
Off the hop, the Ducks needed just 20 seconds to put the puck in the net by way of Trouba, but Montreal used its timeout and then challenged the goal for an offside entry. Their challenge was successful, and the game remained scoreless, fleetingly.
Nineteen seconds after that, they scored a goal that stood, Gauthier’s ninth in his past eight games and his team-leading 32nd of the season. But 22 seconds later, Montreal tied the score.
There were three goals in the first 3:33 and four overall in the period, leaving the game tied at 2-2 during the first intermission. The Ducks out-shot the Habs 12-4 in a period that didn’t have any shots on net for its final 7:49.
Gudas’ blast from the right point, his second goal of the season, knotted things at the 11:56 mark.
It was a stoppable goal, much like Hutson’s to give the Canadiens the lead off his power-play marker. Slafkovský drew two defenders at the left-wing wall, slipping the puck through Tim Washe’s legs to set up Hutson’s wrist shot from the high slot.
Slafkovský played a major role in Montreal’s first goal, taking the puck from Alex Killorn inside the Ducks’ defensive blue line and moving it to Caufield below the goal line. He found Suzuki in the inner shadow of the right circle for an equalizer.
The Ducks struck first after Kreider’s heady reversal of the puck at the offensive blue line sent Carlsson ahead with speed and a two-on-one rush, setting up the familiar sight of Carlsson finding Gauthier for a one-timer. Gauthier would launch a pair of vicious one-time blasts, one of which nearly created a goal for Carlsson, later in the stanza.
The Ducks played without new defenseman John Carlson, who flew to the West Coast on Friday after a late Thursday night trade ended his 17 seasons with Washington.
More to come on this story.
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