ANAHEIM –– The Ducks’ low-wattage offense and power play were on prominent display as they let the very-much rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks complete a Southern Californian sweep, with Chicago dispatching the Ducks, 4-2, at Honda Center a night after it rallied to beat the Kings, 4-3.
Brock McGinn and Mason McTavish scored largely academic goals for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál came up with 24 saves. McTavish’s tally was his first of the season.
Isaak Phillips, Teuvo Teräväinen, Seth Jones and Ryan Donato all scored goals for Chicago. Connor Bedard conducted the Blackhawks’ orchestra with three assists, and former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall added two more. Arvid Söderblom stopped 37 of 39 shots, carrying forward the solid goaltending of Petr Mrázek just a day earlier.
Chicago drove the dagger into the Ducks when Bedard sauced a pass into the slot for a Philipp Kurashev one-timer that generated a rebound pursued by a drove of players before Donato pushed it home with 2:17 to play. McTavish would tap in a rebound with four seconds remaining to make the final score more respectable.
Just as enthusiasm started to wane in the arena, the Ducks’ broke through with the first goal of the third period at their first tally of the game. Though Olen Zellweger’s pass initially eluded Ross Johnston, who fought former Duck Pat Maroon earlier, he skated it down in the left circle to turn a broken play into a goal with a deft dish for McGinn. His second goal and Johnston’s first point of the season came at the 10:16 mark.
The second period evened play out a bit, with the Ducks still generating possession and zone time at a bit higher rate than Chicago, but with the Blackhawks extending their lead to three goals.
They made it two-for-two on the power play with 1:55 to play in the middle frame. Bedard, who had been thwarted on two partial breakaways by Pavel Mintyukov’s backcheck and Dostál’s alert save, froze the defense by faking a one-timer before floating a saucer pass to Jones for a one-timer from high in the left circle.
In the opening 20 minutes, the Ducks had built an 11-1 shot advantage, but Chicago’s second shot was dangerous and its third was deadly. Bedard’s short-side wrister was repelled by Dostál, but on Chicago’s next trip into the zone made the count 1-0 in its favor.
Bedard hit the blue line with speed and laid a soft pass for hard-skating Phillips, who ripped a wrist shot under the crossbar, to the far side and through a formidable Tyler Bertuzzi screen. Dostál never even saw the perfectly placed shot.
Though the Ducks outright dominated play analytically, they would submerge themselves further when Alex Killorn’s late-period penalty led to a Chicago shooting spree that would have made Al Capone blush.
Of the 11 shots Chicago had in the period, six of them came during their 1:40 of power-play time. The sixth was a one-timer from the right faceoff dot by Teräväinen that made it 2-0, a score that stood after the first period despite Trevor Zegras’ dangerous bid in the final minute.
