Ducks Left Seeing Stars

Photo: AP

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks returned home after going 2-2-1 on their five game road trip. Lukas Dostal was in net against Casey DeSmith. Petr Mrazek was activated from the IR and Ville Husso was reassigned to San Diego on Thursday.

The Ducks went on a power play just after the opening minute of the period, but it would be the Stars who would score shorthanded. Radek Faksa stole the puck from Jacob Trouba near the Anaheim goal line and found Oskar Back in front for a tap in goal.

Anaheim responded with a goal by Ryan Poehling about a minute later at the 3:32 mark. Radko Gudas took a blast from the blue line and Poehling got to the rebound and scored.

Dallas would then respond with a goal by Roope Hintz about a minute later. He scored from the slot with a wrist shot.

The Stars scored two more times in the period with goals from Sam Steel and Thomas Harley. Mrazek came in for Dostal. Dallas was up 4-1 at the end of the first period.

In the second period Jason Robertson would score back-to-back goals, one on the power play and one at even strength. Adam Erne scored late in the period and the Stars had a 7-1 lead through 40 minutes of play.

Beckett Sennecke scored in the first minute of the third period. Mason McTavish fed him a pass and he one-timed it from the left face-off circle for the score.

Former Duck Ilya Lyubushkin scored just 41 seconds later from the right circle to make it a 8-2 contest.

Mikael Granlund scored with just under six minutes to go. He got to a loose puck in the crease and knocked it in. The score was 8-3, which ended up being the final tally.

Analysis:

Anything and everything which could go wrong in this contest did. The Ducks were scored on first and have surrendered the opening goal to an opponent 22 out of the 35 games this season. The opening goal was also a shorthanded goal by Dallas. The Ducks continued to struggle on the power play going 0-for-3. Dallas went 1-for-3 with the man advantage.

The Ducks responded to the early Star goal with Poehling tying the game up at one, but then it was all Stars after that. They went on to score three more times in the opening period and chased Dostal out of the net. They added three more in the second and the game was out of reach at that point.

Obviously there were many low lights in this one for Anaheim, but it was good to see the Ducks not completely give up in the third period. They scored twice knowing that a comeback was virtually impossible. The score board will also say otherwise, but in terms of puck possession Anaheim posted a CF% of 61.11% and FF% of 61.67% at even strength. The Ducks put up 55 shot attempts to 35 for the Stars.

So why do the puck possession numbers like good for Anaheim and yet the final score so lopsided in favor Dallas?

The Stars make plays with whatever opportunities are given to them. They have a loaded forward lineup which only needs a few plays to score. They really outplayed Anaheim in the second half of the first and second periods scoring five times in those 20 minutes. Also Dostal had a very off night for him which only added fuel to the fire. Anaheim also continues to struggle with turnovers and defensive mistakes. Dallas magnified Anaheim’s deficiencies and the hole was too big for the Ducks to dig out of.

Dallas is a playoff ready team, which will likely go far in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Anaheim is trying to get where Dallas is currently at, but they aren’t there yet as was very evident in this contest.

Team News/Stats:

This was only the fourth time in team history they allowed eight or more goals at home.

The Ducks are 11-2-0 when scoring first this season.

The Ducks are 8-11-2 when the opponents score first.

What’s Next?

The Ducks host the Columbus Blues Jackets at 7PM tonight.

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December 20th, 2025