Ducks Lose 4-1 To Wild
By Michael Walters
The Anaheim Ducks took on the Minnesota Wild in the second of back-to-back games after playing the Kings the night before. Lukas Dostal went in net again and squared off against Marc-Andre Fluery.
Recap
There was no scoring in the opening period. The Wild had a power play towards the end of the period and didn’t convert.
The Ducks opened the scoring in the second period, when Mason McTavish got a breakaway from center ice and beat Fluery five-hole.
There were several power plays in the second period, but neither team scored with the extra man. Eventually Connor Dewar would score on a seeing eye shot that beat Dostal through traffic. The teams went to the locker room tied at one apiece.
The Wild made it a 2-1 game early in the third period. Matt Boldy took a wrist shot from the face-off circle, which Dostal got a piece of with his glove, but the puck still found it’s way into the net.
A couple minutes later and Joel Eriksson Ek would score on the power play to make it a 3-1 game.
Anaheim pull Dostal in the final minutes of the game, but Ryan hartman scored an empty net goal to put this game away and make it a 4-1 final.
Analysis:
Head coach Dallas Eakins started the game with a lineup which had Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry split up. He switched up the top three forwards and it wasn’t working in the first period. Anaheim only had 4 shots on goal in 11 attempts. In the second period, he switched the lines back to the similar ones the night before and the Ducks were able to generate chances and score first.
The problem for Anaheim came in the second half of this game where they took five of their six penalties on the night. They took three in a row towards the end of the second period, but were able to get out of the period still tied. In the beginning of the third the Wild scored twice and essentially put the game out of reach.
Anaheim posted 22 shots on goal to 42 for the Wild. Minnesota also won the face-off battle 55% to 45%. In terms of puck possession during 5-on-5 the advantage went to the Wild with a CF 56.32% and FF 52.31%. The Ducks will look for a better outcome on Friday against Calgary before the holiday break.
What’s Next?
Ducks host the Flames tomorrow at 7:30 PM.
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December 22nd, 2022