ANAHEIM — The Ducks chased another opponent and nearly caught them, falling in overtime 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday afternoon at Honda Center.
The Ducks lost their fourth straight game and dropped their eighth decision of their past 10, while Tampa Bay captured its fifth straight victory.
Jansen Harkins, Beckett Sennecke and Mason McTavish all lit the lamp for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál made his sixth straight start and 24 saves.
Nikita Kucherov scored a goal and assisted on one by Brayden Point. J.J. Moser also tallied and Brandon Hagel had three assists, including on Darren Raddysh’s game-winner. Andrei Vasilevskiy halted 24 pucks.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper coached his 1,000th NHL game, all with the Lightning. The former defense attorney became just the fifth coach in NHL history to guide one team through 1,000 or more matches.
Nearly three minutes had passed in an eventful overtime session when Hagel found Raddysh driving the net hard for a redirection goal that Raddysh roofed for the winner.
With 6:58 remaining in regulation, the Ducks scored their third equalizer of the match, and with the extra man. A slick flick of the stick by Pavel Mintyukov kept the puck in the zone, sending it back into McTavish. He glided forward to snipe his 10th goal of the campaign. The power play had gone 4 for 46 before McTavish’s tally.
Much as a hit post preceded the goal they allowed in the second period, an unfinished two-on-one break shorthanded by former Bolt Alex Killorn led to a finish at the other end for Tampa.
The Ducks had drawn even 3:57 into the closing stanza. McTavish pressured an exchange between Vasilevskiy and Erik Černák, with Sennecke joining to take the puck from Černák and pop a shot past the two-time Stanley Cup champ.
Through 40 minutes, Tampa maintained its one-goal edge from the first intermission after the two sides exchanged markers in the second period.
Point reclaimed the lead after Kucherov’s seam pass from the right circle to the left point set up Max Crozier’s shot, which Point directed home calmly for his seventh goal.
Olen Zellweger had perhaps the best chance of the first period, with Leo Carlsson’s one-timer from Cutter Gauthier coming in the middle frame. Vasilevskiy stood tall in each instance.
The Ducks’ penalty kill did the same in the second period, withstanding pressure during the power play and for a stretch after Zellweger’s tripping penalty expired.
The Ducks drew even with 4:43 to play in the stanza. After Charle-Edouard D’Astous skated forward but left the puck behind, Ross Johnston made perhaps the prettiest play of his career.
His Lemieux-esque use of his reach and hands pulled Vasilevskiy out of position for Johnston to deliver a backhanded saucer pass over an outstretched Raddysh. That netted an easy backdoor goal for Harkins, the industrious forward’s third tally this season.
The Ducks again gave up the game’s first goal, though it required more time and more attempts than usual.
The Lightning appeared to get the offense going when Point, whose entire line was named to Team Canada on Wednesday, tapped the puck home. But the Ducks challenged successfully that Point entered the zone offside, nullifying the goal.
Some last-ditch defending, principally from Jacob Trouba, negated another seemingly surefire attack from the Bolts, who finally opened the scoring with 6:30 left in the first period.
Moser, the Swiss defender who signed a $54 million extension Saturday, crept from the left point to the faceoff dot. He received the puck and curled it across Ian Moore to smoke a shot far side.
More to come on this story.