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 fell for the ninth time in 11 opportunities.
With the win, the Ducks 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.
“(The atmosphere) is night-and-day different, when you’re on a nine-game losing streak, it’s not too hot. Obviously, we’ve been playing some good hockey recently,” forward Cutter Gauthier said.
Gauthier, who turned 22 on Monday, scored goals Nos. 21 and 22 of his season in the final 18:59 of the tilt. Mason McTavish, new addition 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 an assist on Vladislav Gavrikov’s power-play goal and one of his own. J.T. Miller, who has 12 points in 11 games, assisted on Panarin’s goal and another by Matthew Robertson. Vincent Trocheck matched Miller’s assist total. Spencer Martin made 21 saves.
The Ducks seemed determined to do things the hard way after going ahead 4-2 on Gauthier’s third-period goal, but they pulled through.
Between a pair of penalties and the time the Rangers had six-on-five with Martin pulled, the Ducks spent most of 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 to play.
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.
“You can always look back and there’s things we could have done differently to stop those [goals],” Killorn said. “But on the biggest PK where we needed to stop them, we did that.”
The hosts padded their lead after a savvy pinch by Drew Helleson stunted a breakout and recovered the puck. He hit Gauthier for a shot from between the circles, 61 seconds into the final frame.
“When you’re careless with the puck and you give them those kinds of opportunities, they’re going to end up in your net,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said.
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 off 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 received no support from puck-watching Will Borgen as Killorn backhanded the rebound from 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 had 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 of 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 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 of Robertson and went straight to McTavish for a short-side strike, his 13th 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 flicked a shot from above the left circle that got a chunk of Dostál on its way into the net, four minutes into the match.
“We got through the first five or 10 minutes there, when they were coming through us rather easily. Their speed was dangerous off the rush and they scored, but we got established later in the period,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ll take the win. They don’t always have to be a work of art.”
Next up, the Ducks head to Colorado for a Wednesday game that begins a five-game trip that also sends them to Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
