ANAHEIM — Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill recently said that if his team was going to “climb the mountain” of the Western Conference, they’d have to scale past the Ducks.
On Sunday evening at Honda Center, the hosts showed Chicago how much closer they were to the peak, blowing away their opponents from the Windy City, 7-1.
The Ducks won for their third time in four games to maintain their division lead. Analytically, the match was even more of a mollywhopping than it was on the scoreboard. Their even-strength expected goals percentage was the Ducks’ highest since Natural Stat Trick began tabulating the figure in 2007.
Chicago has now lost eight of its last 10 games. The ‘Hawks were playing their third game in four nights and had lost to the Kings, 6-0, 23 hours before this affair. They had taken two prior meetings with the Ducks this season.
Leo Carlsson scored two goals. Beckett Sennecke deposited a goal and assisted on Mason McTavish’s power-play conversion, with Cutter Gauthier also involved in both scores. Alex Killorn and Jacob Trouba also tallied. Chris Kreider and Ryan Strome each chipped in two assists. Ville Husso made his fourth straight start and came up with 19 saves.
Tyler Bertuzzi’s man-advantage marker disrupted Husso’s potential shutout. Arvid Söderblom faced a week’s worth of shots in 60 minutes, stopping a career-high 46 of 53.
Carlsson said “everything just clicked,” while he and Coach Joel Quenneville pointed to the Ducks’ extrapolating their effort from the early going of last Sunday’s defeat in Chicago — they flew out to a 3-0 lead but fell 5-3 — across three stanzas.
“I really loved our effort right from the get-go,” Quenneville said. “It was frustrating last Sunday in Chicago, and we started the same way, but I liked that we wanted to have it for 60 minutes, and tonight, we did.”
The Ducks bombarded the Blackhawks across the first 40 minutes, scoring 10:16 into the first period and then at the 6:40, 9:26, 16:09 and 17:23 marks of the second.
The Ducks tripled up Chicago up with an 18-6 advantage in first-period shots on goal. They also ignited the scoring.
Kreider hounded Ilya Mikheyev on the forecheck, forcing a weak cross-ice pass that Trouba skated into for a thunderous slapshot from above the right circle. It was his fifth goal of the year to lead all Ducks defensemen.
In the second period, the Ducks’ dam burst open offensively, leaving the two sides five goals and 31 shots (44-13) apart at the second intermission — their 27 strikes on net set a franchise record for a period.
The Ducks had gone without a conversion on 16 straight power plays as part of a 3-for-39 funk, but they rectified that to make it 2-0.
Gauthier’s one-timer sent Sennecke a rebound on the doorstep, which he keenly passed from the left post to the bottom of the right circle. There, McTavish glided forward to score his seventh goal of the season.
Sennecke added further flair to the onslaught as a quick breakout left him with the puck, but without numbers, in the offensive zone. He traversed the high slot, shielding the puck from all three defenders before pivoting to deliver a laser from the right circle. His far-side goal gave him nine goals and 24 points in 2025-26, both of which led all rookies.
“You don’t see a ton of guys that young that are that comfortable protecting the puck,” said Killorn, a two-time Stanley Cup champion. “He does such a good job with his poise, it’s pretty rare.”
With Chris Paul on his way out of town, Ryan Strome resurrected “Lob City” just the same, with a long, skyward pass that Killorn, who got behind the D retrieving his stick, tracked down. He fended off Sam Rinzel to finish on a partial breakaway for his second goal of the campaign.
Carlsson pushed the score to 5-0 after a tempered rush and a drop pass from Kreider let him fling an ostensibly harmless shot from the left circle. It was deflected upon release by another No. 2 overall pick, Artyom Levshunov, and the puck knuckled past Söderblom.
Then, Carlsson’s 16th goal moved him into a tie with Gauthier for the team lead just 15 seconds into the third period. A penalty carried over from the end of the middle frame, and all five Ducks touched the puck before Kreider hit Carlsson for a redirection goal with the extra man.
Bertuzzi responded with a power-play redirection goal of his own to break up Husso’s shutout with 18:20 to play. Bertuzzi’s 15 goals are respectable, but his 12 road tallies tie him for the league lead with Nathan MacKinnon.
Already having put up a touchdown, the Ducks tacked on the point after try with 1:52 left in the contest. Olen Zellweger dished to Vatrano for a one-timer, his third goal and first since Nov. 8.
The Blackhawks lost their back-to-back set by an aggregate count of 13-1, while the Ducks enjoyed the spoils of their fifth seven-goal effort this season and most lopsided victory to date.
“All positives all over the place,” Quenneville said. “(Vatrano) scored, (Killorn) scored, our four-line rotation was as good as it’s been in any game this year. I liked the balance on the back end, (Husso) got a nice ‘W’ as well. It was a complete game.”