ANAHEIM — Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh was in the Ducks’ dressing room at Honda Center on Sunday night, but while they may have been bolted up pregame they ultimately drifted even further from bolting down a playoff spot, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2.

The St. Louis Blues defeated the Nashville Predators on Sunday, opening a gaping 13-point advantage on the Ducks for the final wild-card berth in the West, which the Ducks now have only a dozen games to close. Carolina, which lost 7-2 to the Kings a day earlier, won for the ninth time in its past 10 games.

Alex Killorn and Trevor Zegras kept their hands hot with a goal apiece for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál gave them a fighting chance by repelling 32 pucks.

Taylor Hall turned in a hat trick for Carolina. Mark Jankowski and Jordan Martinook also tallied, while Jack Roslovic added two assists. Former Duck Frederik Andersen made 32 saves, including 16 of 17 shots he faced in the third period.

The third period saw plenty of gusts from the Ducks but they were ultimately blown over by the Hurricanes.

A mere 36 seconds after the Ducks had made it a game again, Hall hammered their coffin shut with his second goal of the match, finishing an odd-man attack by going forehand to backhand. He’d then add an empty-net goal to complete his tripleta, the sixth hat trick of the former Hart Trophy winner’s career.

With 3:23 showing on the game clock, Zegras crashed the net to stuff Jacob Trouba’s rebound through the pads of Andersen, with his ninth goal of 2024-25 halving the Ducks’ deficit. Zegras had a goal and an assist in the Ducks’ previous outing, a win in Nashville.

The Ducks began the final 20 minutes on a power play but failed to convert for the fifth time en route to an 0-for-6 evening with the extra man. Soon after it was Killorn, who’d scored a goal and drawn a penalty, taking a hooking minor and sending the ‘Canes to the power play.

There, Hall made the Ducks pay. Jackson Blake drove the net to bank the puck off Dostál’s pad and through Brett Leason’s legs, where Hall pounced for a wrist-shot marker, 2:32 into the closing stanza.

The Ducks would push hard down the stretch, perhaps most notably when defenseman Olen Zellweger’s foray to the net tested Andersen’s pad on an initial shot off a toe-drag move and then both his glove and his flexibility against a menacing followup bid. Andersen would also stone Troy Terry on a breakaway soon after, and later a partial breakaway by Ryan Strome.

The middle frame saw Carolina earn the game’s first edge and the Ducks equalized after a near miss for Carolina, who’d later regain the lead, leaving the count at 2-1 as the teams headed to their dressing rooms.

Mere instants after Dostál made a cat-like pad save on former King Sean Walker, Carolina missed on purpose when Shayne Gostisbehere’s wide shot off the end boards popped straight to Martinook, whose backhanded putback gave the visitors a lead with 5:23 left in the period.

Carolina had nearly gone up 2-0 but the one-timer of Seth Jarvis, who was none the worse for wear after a scare at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday, never made it to the net when his stick broke. Soon after, the skate of Jackson LaCombe broke up a play that sent Killorn the other way with momentum, his shot sneaking through the pads of Andersen for a tying goal. It was Killorn’s 17th tally of the year and his fourth in six games, registered at the 13:04 mark.

Jankowski, who like Killorn scored his second goal in as many games, had opened the scoring with a backhanded, lateral redirection from below the goal line. His deft deflection was the former Calgary first-rounder’s 10th goal of the campaign, with seven of those coming in his past nine appearances.

The Ducks spent six minutes with the extra man in the first period but managed just two shots on goal during that time and were out-shot 11-6 in a scoreless frame. Five-on-five play clearly favored the ‘Canes, but Dostál was up to the task for the hosts, but Dostál was up to the challenge, stopping at least four high-danger chances.

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