ANAHEIM –– The Ducks snapped a four-game winless skid and earned the first victory of this homestand with a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Honda Center on Sunday.
There was no shortage of punch-trading and close calls, but the Ducks ultimately blended resilience and opportunism to send Columbus, who also entered the evening without a win in its past four games, to yet another defeat.
Brett Leason, Jackson LaCombe, Leo Carlsson and Isac Lundeström lit the lamp for the Ducks. John Gibson made his first start of the year after recovering from a preseason appendectomy, turning in a dandy of a performance from start to finish with 38 saves.
Yegor Chinakhov and Kirill Marchenko each scored a goal for Columbus. Daniil Tarasov stopped 25 of 28 shots.
Just 3:03 showed on the game clock when Columbus added intrigue with a late marker. It was a high-effort, hard-luck shift for Brock McGinn, who was stung by a hard shot, only to see Columbus regroup. McGinn nearly cleared the puck during a net-front barrage but ended up flicking it directly to Marchenko for his sixth goal of the season, tying him with Sean Monahan for the team lead. McGinn would earn redemption and an assist, however, on Lundeström’s empty-netter with 100 seconds to play.
With 9:40 remaining in the match, the Ducks had found some breathing room in the form of a 3-1 lead. Brian Dumoulin and Ryan Strome each had shot attempts from the slot, where Dumoulin found Carlsson with a short pass for a laser from between the hash marks, the Swede’s fifth goal of the campaign.
The second stanza carried over much of the Columbus momentum from the back half of the first, but despite the Ducks falling behind analytically, they hopped ahead on the scoreboard, thanks in large part to LaCombe.
He sprung Trevor Zegras for a partial breakaway, made a diving shot-block before clearing the puck from his knees, and, in between, scored the period’s only goal, putting the Ducks in front 2-1.
At the 4:22 mark, Columbus defenseman Ivan Provorov’s giveaway gave way to Troy Terry’s near miss, which pinged the same right post as Olen Zellweger’s bid did in the first period. LaCombe recovered the puck, moving it to Terry, who sent it onto Radko Gudas for a point shot that hit Columbus forward Cole Sillinger’s stick before being popped in by LaCombe for his third career goal and first of the season.
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Period 1 was a tale of two halves with the hosts picking up the game’s first goal, drawing its first penalty and looking potent on its first power play, only to see the visitors tie the score as they took command of the latter part of the period.
Columbus turned an Alex Killorn slashing penalty into an equalizer with 3:44 left, 29 seconds into their power play. Chinakov let a one-timer rip from above the right circle that went through a double screen set by Silinger and Sean Monahan. Gibson got a chunk of the puck but not enough to repel it, tying the game, 1-1.
Ross Johnston gained the zone and flicked the puck on net, generating a rebound for Cutter Gauthier, who made a backhanded touch pass through the crease to Leason. He slipped the puck through Tarasov to make it 1-0, 3:13 into the contest. Zellweger would come mere millimeters from hammering it past him when he hit the post during a power play that also saw the Ducks accumulate four shots on goal.