ANAHEIM –– Just as the Ducks’ play proclaimed that they’d moved out of the NHL’s basement, they slipped against one of its worst teams, the Chicago Blackhawks, in a 6-3 loss riddled with self-inflicted wounds at Honda Center on Saturday night.
There, the Ducks fell in regulation for just the second time in 11 home games (8-2-1) and the third time in their past 12 games overall (8-3-1). Chicago halted its five-game freefall, though ascending star Connor Bedard was held scoreless for the fifth straight game. He has more assists (10) and points (11) versus the Ducks than he has against any other franchise.
Leo Carlsson poured in two goals and Jackson LaCombe tacked on another to stay hot for the Ducks. John Gibson, who was honored before the game for playing in his 500th career game last month, stopped 18 shots in defeat.
Ryan Donato and Teuvo Teräväinen led the charge for Chicago, combining for three goals and six points. Lukas Reichel contributed a goal and an assist. Former Duck Pat Maroon scored, as did Wyatt Kaiser. Former King Alex Martinez recorded career assists Nos. 200 and 201. Arvid Söderblom turned away 28 bids. Earlier in the day, Chicago traded its top defenseman, Seth Jones, to the Florida Panthers in exchange for goalie Spencer Knight and a first-round pick.
“I told them after the game, ‘we had more turnovers in this game than I think we had in the previous month,’” Coach Greg Cronin said.
“You can’t underestimate an opponent. There’s no doubt in my mind that there was a sense of overconfidence,” Cronin added. “The players know, they’re educated. They look at the standings. They see Jones gets traded, that (captain Nick) Foligno’s out. They lost their focus.”
Carlsson pulled up and buried an academic goal, a short-side laser for his second of the game and 13th of the season to give him nine points in his last eight appearances, with 2:44 remaining in the match. The No. 2 pick in 2023 outshined the top selection, Bedard, but little else went well for the Ducks.
“It was just a bad game. We’re a better team when we play simple and play fast, but didn’t do that in this game, [there were a] lot of turnovers,” Carlsson said.
The final 20 minutes arrived with the game very much in play, but the Ducks couldn’t capitalize on significant shot and face-off advantages while errors continued to compound themselves.
Donato smoked Brian Dumoulin through the neutral zone to skate down Teräväinen’s pass before utilizing a forehand-to-backhand-to-forehand move to beat Gibson cleanly with 9:04 to play.
He had also tallied on the power during a five-on-three situation at 7:40. The Ducks were called for concurrent penalties, resulting in a two-man disadvantage for a full two minutes, for the second time in a week. Last Sunday in Detroit, they surrendered two goals, but gave up only one Saturday, when Donato pushed a rebound by Gibson and the outnumbered Jacob Trouba.
“I’d be curious if we don’t have to kill the most 5-on-3s in the league,” Cronin said.
They’d already fallen down by a pair at the 4:53 mark when Reichel converted stick-side on a breakaway generated after Cutter Gauthier’s shot got stuffed in the slot.
Söderblom and Gibson kept the first period scoreless but sloppiness by the Ducks, including a sequence that gave Bedard a wide-open shot between the hash marks, bled into the middle frame.
Then, the teams combined to score five goals with the Ducks striking at 8:33 and 14:41, and Chicago tallying at 7:48, 10:24 and 13:16.
The Ducks headed into the dressing room down one goal thanks to LaCombe, who extended his points streak to five games (six points) by scoring a goal in consecutive contests. He activated, driving directly to the net as Ryan Strome cleverly looked off the defense before whipping the puck to LaCombe alone in front, where he scooped the puck over Söderblom’s pad for his 11th goal of the season.
“The end of the second period was our best push, we played with a lot of pace. I thought they were starting to lose their belief,” captain Radko Gudas said. “In the third, their fourth goal really brought us down to our knees.”
Chicago had scored two straight goals to establish a 3-1 edge.
Teräväinen ripped a shot from between the circles after three Ducks drifted to the goal line and two more were caught watching the puck as it went from low to high.
Maroon had reclaimed the lead for the ‘Hawks after he was left unmarked on the doorstep during a power play, which he concluded by flinging a shot past his former teammate Gibson.
The Ducks had knotted the game just 45 seconds after Chicago opened the scoring. Carlsson settled a wobbling puck and powered past Kaiser to flip a velvety backhand over the glove of his Swedish countryman Söderblom.
Kaiser buried the game’s first goal following a sequence during which the Ducks courted disaster repeatedly and finally gave up a goal. Kaiser’s marker was the second of his career, beating three defenders in the process as he navigated his way from the blue line to below the left faceoff dot.
Next up, the Ducks will travel to Edmonton to clash with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers on Tuesday.