ANAHEIM –– The Ducks gave the top team in the West a run for its money but came up a dollar short, slipping 2-1 against the Vancouver Canucks at Honda Center on Sunday evening.
The Ducks lost for the first time in three games while Vancouver won for the second time in its past eight. Yet the Ducks remained a figurative lightyear and a literal 25 points behind the second wild-card, while Vancouver’s victory left it in sole possession of first place in the conference with 85 points.
Alex Killorn lit the lamp for the Ducks. Cam Fowler returned after a one-game absence (facial laceration), replacing Jackson LaCombe in the defense corps. Leo Carlsson (upper-body) was out again. Lukáš Dostál made 29 of 31 saves after stopping 52 shots in Friday’s victory over New Jersey. John Gibson (illness) was unavailable Sunday, and that prompted the recall of veteran goalie Alex Stalock.
Nils Hoglander and Connor Garland each scored a goal for Vancouver. Casey DeSmith stopped 18 pucks.
The third period was largely a battle of attrition, though in the final 84 seconds the Ducks played six-on-five and generated some brushes with glory. Killorn set up in the right circle, where he broke his stick on a one-timer and missed the net with another shot attempt, as did Adam Henrique with a golden opportunity from the low slot that sailed over the cage.
The second stanza’s lone goal belonged to Vancouver, though Bo Groulx dinged the post with a would-be equalizer later in the second period.
Just after a Ducks penalty expired, they struggled with the sort out of a five-on-five situation that saw Sam Carrick exit the penalty box, but the Ducks still effectively played shorthanded because of a defensive miscue.
Carrick and Pavel Mintyukov went to the same man after missing a switch, J.T. Miller, who found Zadorov in the right circle, effectively leaving Isac Lundeström to defend Zadorov and the man he found unmarked on the doorstep, Garland. Garland’s 12th goal of the year came 3:44 into the frame. Garland has scored more points against the Ducks, 14, in his career than against all but one other franchise, the San Jose Sharks.
Vancouver earned the game’s first goal on its first shot after Quinn Hughes undressed Frank Vatrano in the right faceoff circle, drawing Fowler away from Hoglander in the low slot. A backhand dish from Hughes found Hoglander for his 19th goal of the year, 1:37 into the contest. Both Hughes and his defense partner Filip Hronek would have near misses later in the frame.
The Ducks drew even at 4:15, also on their very first shot on goal, which came off an inadvertent give-and-go play. Killorn passed to Max Jones, whose shot attempt was disrupted by the stick of Pius Suter. The puck found Killorn at the side of the net, who fired it in for his ninth goal of the season.
Mason McTavish (lower body) did not play.
More to come on this story.