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The Anaheim Ducks dropped their first game back after their Eastern Conference road trip last night, falling 7-4 to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Urho Vaakanainen checked back into the Ducks lineup in place of Gustav Lindstrom, while Adam Henrique was up with Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn, and Ryan Strome was playing with Isac Lundestrom and Jakob Silfverberg.
The Ducks looked good in the first couple minutes, but it was Columbus who struck on their first shot of the game, as Johnny Gaudreau’s slapshot hit John Gibson in the mask, but the puck bounced off Zach Werenski and in, on somewhat of a flukey goal.
The Ducks kept pressing from there with some chances, but then once again, Columbus came back down ice on an odd-man rush when Urho Vaakanainen was caught up ice, and Gaudreau was able to walk in and tuck the puck past Gibson, to make it 2-0 Columbus.
The game was pretty wide open for a while from there, with some great chances going back both ways. But then with under two minutes to go in the frame, Werenski managed to bank a puck in off Gibson from behind the net following another rush chance, to extend the lead to three goals.
So while there was actually some things to like in opening frame for Anaheim overall, getting the higher volume of chances and outshooting Columbus 10-7, some bad mistakes made the difference and the Ducks found themselves in a big hole through 20 minutes.
Things got worse just minutes into the second period, when John Gibson turned the puck over leading to a goal for Sean Kuraly to make it 4-0. Ross Johnston ended up fighting Mathieu Olivier on the ensuing faceoff, and while Troy Terry did end up getting Anaheim on the board with a great shot to beat Daniil Tarasov, the Blue Jackets controlled most of the frame.
However, while Anaheim couldn’t capitalize on a power play later, in the final few minutes of the frame, Tarasov took a stick up high from Adam Boqvist and Mason McTavish lifted the puck in to cut the lead to 4-2. Tarasov temporarily left the game from there, as Elvis Merzlikins entered in relief.
Anaheim did then have another power play to end the frame and while a penalty to Ryan Strome ended up negating half of it, Troy Terry found Mason McTavish with a perfect pass on a rush at 4-on-4, and McTavish slid the puck through Merzlikins to pull the Ducks back to within one through 40 minutes.
Anaheim wasn’t done there, and after Johnny Gaudreau lost the puck in his own end and Pavel Mintyukov took the puck up ice on a rush, then curled to find Leo Carlsson, who put a pass over to Alex Killorn for an easy finish on the open net, tying the game. So with four goals in just over 10 minutes (and the final three goals coming in under four minutes), the Ducks had tied the game at 4-4 through 40 minutes.
The Blue Jackets managed to take their lead back about seven minutes into the third period though, as Johnny Gaudreau found Yegor Chinakhov on an odd-man rush for a tap-in on a nice passing play. Then under a minute later, the Blue Jackets made another entry on a rush and a blocked shot put the puck right to Sean Kuraly, who buried a shot past Gibson to quickly extend the lead to 6-4.
Anaheim didn’t get a ton going for a while after that, but did have two late power plays with chances to try for another comeback. Even with the goalie pulled for a 6-on-4 though, the Ducks weren't able to generate much, and Boone Jenner ended up winning a battle against Pavel Mintyukov to bury an empty netter, as Columbus took the 7-4 win.
It was an exciting game despite the loss, but it would’ve been great for the Ducks to be able to a bit of momentum here. They were playing the worst team in the Eastern Conference in the second half of a road back-to-back and coming off the win in Buffalo, but mistakes ended up costing them.
On the positive side, the team is scoring, which is great to see. They’ve managed at least four goals in three of their last four games, which is an improvement. I guess at the same time, they’ve also allowed 30 goals over the last six games, though.
It was good to see the Vatrano-McTavish-Terry line able to rebound a bit as well. They had a really tough opening frame and were on the ice for all three goals against, but then helped to lead the comeback in the second frame, combining for three of the four goals.
Pavel Mintyukov also deserves credit for a good game, with three assists and a plus-2 rating in the loss. In fact, he was the only player on the team with a plus-rating, and was doing what he does so well – taking the puck up ice to lead or join a rush, and trying to make things happen.
On the downside, the Ducks just had such a tough time defensively. They were giving up odd-man rushes over and over again, to the point where almost every goal allowed came off a rush. Defensemen were being caught up ice and forwards weren’t back to help. Especially in the first period, the Ducks were carrying the play a little bit, but just a few costly mistakes had them trailing by a massive margin after 20 minutes. The Ducks have improved defensively from where they were last year, but there are some games where they don’t look all that much better.
On another note: any time these teams meet, at least short-term, there will also always be the comparisons between Leo Carlsson and Adam Fantilli. However, it’s the second time that we've missed out on the matchup, with Carlsson sitting out the October game, and Fantilli being hurt last night. Given the teams only meet twice, we’ll have to wait until next year to see the players go head-to-head.
So it’s a disappointing loss for Anaheim, but there are at least positives to draw, and if the team is going to lose games, it was at least an entertaining watch. The Ducks showed a lot of fight to battle back from such a huge deficit, even if it was their own mistakes that created that deficit to begin with.
The Ducks will be back in action for a back-to-back set this weekend.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM FEBRUARY
- Examining the Ducks’ trade deadline options 
Anaheim Ducks Blogger • 
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