ANAHEIM — No lead – for or against – is safe when the Ducks are on the ice.
They’ve either overturned or retroceded at least one multi-goal lead in each of their past four games, including a two-tally advantage for the Vancouver Canucks, whom they rallied to defeat, 5-2, on Thursday night at Honda Center in their first home game in 3½ weeks.
Five unanswered goals earned the Ducks their fifth consecutive victory at home, moving them to 8-1-1 in their past 10 games at the arena formerly known as The Pond. For Vancouver, its three-game win streak crashed to a close, leaving three teams within three points or fewer of the Canucks for the final Western Conference wild-card playoff berth.
The Ducks (26-25-7, 59 points) – on pace for a 24-point improvement in the standings from last season – now sit six points back. They have earned a point in nine of their last 11 games for their most productive stretch of play since November 2021.
Ryan Strome had a goal and a primary assist. Troy Terry contributed an empty-net goal and two assists. Cutter Gauthier, Frank Vatrano and Jackson LaCombe each netted a goal. Mason McTavish and Isac Lundeström chipped in two assists apiece. Lukáš Dostál held the Ducks in the game with 22 saves.
Tyler Myers scored a goal and assisted on one by Pius Suter in the first period for the Canucks. Arturs Silovs stopped 20 shots.
The final 20 minutes of the match tested Dostál early during a power play, before the Ducks seized control.
Just 4:14 remained on the clock when LaCombe surveyed the slot patiently and roofed a shot that iced the victory and got him into double digits for the season. Terry’s 17th goal of the season was launched into the empty net with 2:06 to play, sending the crowd home with a win and free chicken to boot.
In the second period, the Ducks turned the tilt completely by flipping a two-goal deficit into a one-goal edge by the second intermission, scoring at 5:27, 9:09 and 18:41.
The Ducks’ top line cycled the puck with Terry flicking a low-flying shot that created a rebound recovery for Strome, who found Vatrano for a searing, far-side one-timer from the left faceoff dot. Vatrano’s 18th goal of the season sliced the Ducks’ deficit in half.
In the closing 20 minutes, an early power play for Vancouver tested Dostál, whose robbery of Jake DeBrusk gave the Ducks momentum that carried into a mid-period barrage that Silovs withstood.
They leveled the count when Gauthier, who tied for the game high with four shots on goal, delivered a counterpunch for his 12th goal of 2024-25. He skated into Lundeström’s lead pass and dashed ahead to rip yet another far-side shot from the left dot.
Strome, who had been visible all night, gave the hosts their first lead. His timely break into a skating lane and McTavish’s decisive pass synergized perfectly to turn a rush without numbers into a go-ahead goal.
The Ducks buzzed early and fell flat later in the first period, bookending the frame with goals against at the 3:17 and 16:52 marks.
After scoring two power-play goals for the first time in about 10 weeks in Buffalo, the Ducks had the game’s first power play on Thursday. Not only did they fail to convert, but as Myers’ penalty expired, Gauthier tried to jam a puck into the slot with an off-balance heave, a pass that was effortlessly disrupted to key a counterattack. Myers exited the box, received the puck and wrapped up the rush with a missile from high in the right circle to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Gauthier nearly redeemed himself with a potent shot, but Silovs made a glove save that was later one-upped by Dostál’s ensnaring of Quinn Hughes’ dangerous against-the-grain wrister from the left dot.
Myers factored centrally into the Canucks’ second goal, this time with a primary assist. Again he activated, gliding into a pass atop the right circle and weaving his way below the goal line. He circled the net, selling a pass high with his eyes before zipping a centering feed that Suter redirected through the wickets of Dostál.
More to come on this story.