The Ducks hardly looked like themselves Saturday at Honda Center, facing the New York Rangers with a patchwork lineup that was dictated by the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. In the end, the results were probably all too predictable, with the Ducks no match for the Rangers during a 4-1 loss.
Isac Lundestrom gave the Ducks an all-too-brief lead in the second period, but the Rangers responded with three straight goals. Mika Zibanejad, Jarred Tinordi and Ryan Lindgren scored to give New York what proved to be a commanding 3-1 lead by the midway point of the third.
Lindgren added a late empty-net goal.
“We can talk a whole lot about what it takes to win,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “It’s one word to me and that’s ‘mindset.’ That’s the challenge of a season like this. Not only is it a challenge with 82 games, but we have certain circumstances where we have the slow trickle of COVID, guys are in and out of the lineup, lines are disrupted. That’s our circumstance.
“You’ve got to be mentally tough to go through this.”
The Ducks managed to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 with a similarly depleted lineup Tuesday and then had their game Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings postponed until Sunday. They went back to work Saturday against the Rangers, but couldn’t repeat Tuesday’s performance.
Not by the longest shot.
The Rangers limited the Ducks to a season-low 14 shots, two fewer than they recorded in a 3-1 loss Dec. 31 to the Vegas Golden Knights. New York fired 40 shots at Anthony Stolarz, including 20 during the pivotal third period, when the Rangers scored three times to seize control of the game.
Goaltender John Gibson, centers Sam Carrick and Derek Grant, right wing Vinni Lettieri and defenseman Hampus Lindholm remained in the league’s COVID-19 protocol Saturday. Center Ryan Getzlaf exited, but was held out because he hadn’t had a chance to practice with his teammates.
Getzlaf is expected to play Sunday against the Red Wings.
Left wing Nicolas Deslauriers exited the protocol and rejoined his teammates, including Trevor Zegras, who raised a fuss with Ducks coach Dallas Eakins about sitting out Thursday’s game because he hadn’t had a chance to practice after exiting the protocol. It became a moot point when the game was postponed.
Stolarz made his first start since he and the Ducks defeated the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 15, and he was sharp right from the start. An overzealous Zegras was given a double-minor for high sticking 6:43 into his first game since Dec. 17, and the Ducks’ penalty-kill went right to work.
The Rangers generated sustained pressure but couldn’t score. Zegras later rang a shot off the intersection of the left goal post and the crossbar for the Ducks’ best chance of the opening period. Zegras formed a dangerous-looking line with Jacob Perreault and Sonny Milano on his wings.
Perreault made his NHL debut and came within inches of scoring a second-period goal off a deflection of teammate Simon Benoit’s perimeter shot. The deflected puck struck the goal post and fluttered out of harm’s way, however. Tinordi’s go-ahead goal deflected off Perreault’s stick at 1:46 of the third.
Related Articles
Ducks call up prospect Jacob Perreault to bolster depleted lineup
Ducks await COVID-19 test results as uncertainty looms
Whicker: Ducks’ Jamie Drysdale is ready to tear down that rookie wall
Ducks vs. Red Wings tonight at Honda Center postponed due to COVID-19
Ducks prospect Mason McTavish on Canadian Olympic team’s radar
“I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a little kid,” said Perreault, whose parents – Yanic, a former NHL player, and July – were among the 15,146 in attendance at Honda Center. “It was nice to get on some NHL ice, to get my toes wet, to gain some experience from this. It’s never fun to lose games, but it’s on to the next one.”
Some determined forechecking from Troy Terry set up Lundestrom for a goal 11:05 into the second period. Terry poked the puck off the stick of New York’s K’Andre Miller, took possession and fed a pass across to Lundestrom for a point-blank try and a goal that gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
New York countered with Zibanejad’s goal at the 14-minute mark of the second, tying the score 1-1. Zibanejad’s shot from close range struck the stick of the Ducks’ Max Comtois and then ricocheted off Stolarz’s blocker and into the net. The Ducks had failed to gain possession behind the net.
Zegras attempted the Zegras, his lacrosse-style pass from behind the net, but it failed to connect. In fact, the Rangers crowded around the front of their net in order to prevent Zegras from a repeat of his alley-oop pass to Sonny Milano for a goal in a victory Dec. 7 over the Buffalo Sabres.
“I saw it as it happened,” New York goalie Alexandar Georgiev said of Zegras’ attempt in the second period, which ended up bouncing out of the slot and toward the blue line. “We read that pretty well. He has a good presence in front of the net. We can expect that from this guy.”