ANAHEIM — It might not have been a work of art, but two points go into the standings rather than a museum, as the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators, 2-1, on Friday night at Honda Center.
The Ducks moved to within six points of a wild-card playoff berth with the victory while the Predators, now playing for pride mostly, saw their four-game winning streak come to an end.
Troy Terry and Alex Killorn scored for the Ducks, who won for just the second time in six games. Lukáš Dostál held the hosts in a battle that saw them out-shot nearly two to one, with the proportion being even more lopsided at points in the final frame, by halting 28 pucks.
Jakub Vrana scored Nashville’s only goal, and Juuse Saros had 13 saves.
With 8:40 to play, Killorn’s 15th goal of 2024-25 came after Trevor Zegras threw an area pass into the slot, where Killorn criss-crossed with Drew Helleson, swooping on the puck and skating across the crease for the game-winning goal, and a bit of redemption.
The Ducks had been in a tie game after Killorn’s interference penalty gave the Preds a power play. Though Dostál made a resplendent save, again managing to reach out and knock down a puck that was labeled to one post as he slid toward the other.
On that same power play, however, Nashville regrouped to knot the contest at the 4:25 mark. Ryan O’Reilly found Brady Skjei, whose horizontal pass set up a one-timer from the blue for Vrana that hit Dostál but still got through him.
The Ducks would also spend another 2:50 shorthanded, including 1:10 with a two-man disadvantage, escaping unscathed.
For almost 36 minutes of the match, the game was scoreless and largely uneventful, but one minute of the middle frame enlivened the action all by itself and left the Ducks up 1-0 at the second intermission.
Terry had been dangerous for much of the night, weaving to the net for chances of his own and creating for others, before he scored at the 15:52 mark of the second period. A minute later, all hell broke loose in the Ducks’ crease as they scrambled frantically to prevent a tying goal.
Mason McTavish and Terry applied forecheck pressure, with Vatrano recovering the puck and sliding it across to Terry at the left faceoff dot, where he launched a missile that found its target under the bar to the far side. It was Terry’s 18th goal of the season and second since Jan. 29, but it reminded the world how he scored 37 times during the 2021-22 season.
The Preds nearly clawed that goal right back, but Jackson LaCombe was on his toes and Radko Gudas was on his back, his belly and whatever else had to touch the ice to keep the puck from reaching Dostál, who also made a save during the sequence and also nearly slid the puck into his own net.
Twenty minutes came and went without a goal, with the Ducks failing to capitalize on a pair of power-play opportunities. LaCombe showed off his skating on a breakout that saw him elude three Predators by himself, as well as his deception when he looked off a penalty killer to set up a one-timer for McTavish in the right circle. Dostál helped keep the period scoreles with a cat-like glove save on Michael Bunting, whom the Predators acquired from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline.
More to come on this story.