Ducks Down Penguins Late 4-3

Photo: AP

By Mike Walters

The Anaheim Ducks hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins for their season home opener. Lukas Dostal was in net against Tristan Jarry for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins got on the board just over one minute into this contest. Justin Brazeau redirected a shot attempt by Ryan Shea from the left boards.

Former Duck Rickard Rakell then scored on a redirect around the seven minute mark to make it a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead.

The Ducks got on the board halfway through the period on a power play. Leo Carlsson found Chris Kreider at the side of the net and he tapped in the pass for the score.

Anaheim then tied things up at two with less than a minute to go in the period. Pavel Mintyukov passed the puck to Cutter Gauthier and he one timed the puck from the right face-off circle for the score. The teams were tied at two after the first period.

Drew Helleson gave the Ducks their first lead of the game about halfway through the second period. He took a slap shot from the point that made it’s way past Jarry.

Pittsburgh tied the game with about three minutes left in the period. Anthony Mantha scored on a 2-on-1 on an unusual play. His shot broke Jacob Trouba‘s stick and ended up knuckling into the net. Anaheim challenged the play for being offsides, but lost the challenge. Pittsburgh went on the power play as a result, but did not score. The teams were tied at three after two periods.

The scored remained tied until the final minutes of the game. Parker Wotherspoon was called for delay of game with just under two minutes to go and Kreider scored on the power play to give Anaheim the lead. Troy Terry backhanded the puck to Kreider in the slot for the one timer. The Ducks went on to win 4-3.

Analysis:

Things didn’t look good at the start of this one with Pittsburgh scoring on the first shot on goal and then building a 2-0 lead about seven minutes into this one. The Ducks didn’t lay down, however, scoring two goals to even things up by the end of the opening period. Anaheim briefly had a lead in the second period, but a questionable Pittsburgh goal tied the game. It appeared the Penguins were offside, but the play was reviewed and upheld. Pittsburgh got a power play, but Anaheim was able to kill it off. It appeared this one would go to overtime, but a delay of game penalty in the final minutes proved costly for Pittsburgh as Anaheim converted with the game winning goal.

Kreider has been on fire to start the season. He has four goals already with three of them coming on the power play. It’s early in the season, but the Anaheim power play is clicking at 36.4% efficiency, which is only second to the Minnesota Wild.

The Anaheim penalty kill looks like a work in progress at this point. The Ducks were able to keep the Penguins off the board from the delay of game penalty after the failed challenge on Pittsburgh’s third goal.

The even strength play in this contest was, well, pretty even. The Ducks posted a CF% of 49.49% and FF% of 45.31%. The Penguins had 50 shot attempts to Anaheim’s 49. The Penguins did have 17 high danger chances to just six for the Ducks. After a shaky start Dostal settled in and made several quality saves against those high danger chances.

Overall the Ducks have been an exciting and fast team to watch early on this season. Two of their three games have already been close high tempo contests and I would expect much of the same this season.

Team Notes/Stats:

The Anaheim Ducks won their 10th consecutive season home opener.

Beckett Sennecke became the third Anaheim player with points in each of his first three games. Corey Perry did it in the 2005-2006 season and Max Comtois was well in the 2018-29 season.

Kreider became just the second player in franchise history to score four goals in his first three games. Daniel WInnik scored four in the first three games in the 2012-13 season.

The Ducks set a record for attendance for a season home opener at 17,622.

What’s Next?

The Ducks host the Carolina Panthers Thursday at 7 PM.

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October 15th, 2025