The Ducks are once again north of the border tonight, continuing a four-game road trip with a matchup against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre.
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Anaheim heads to Winnipeg still looking for a bounce back win after suffering its fourth straight defeat last night in Minnesota, 2-0 shutout at the hands of veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The Ducks appeared to get back within one in the early minutes of the third period when Pavol Regenda tucked home a loose puck amidst a netfront scramble, but the goal was quickly nullified by a Wild offside challenge.
"[The Wild] blocked a lot of shots," head coach Greg Cronin said. They packed the inside third of the ice, and we couldn’t get them through. They were blocking them out at the blue line, they were blocking at the net, and they did a really good job keeping us to the outside.
“I think we played well. We just weren’t good enough tonight.”
Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury after taking a check into the boards by Wild forward Marcus Johansson. Gudas did not return and no update on his status was announced after the game. Johansson was not assessed a penalty on the play.
Gudas has appeared in 60 of Anaheim's 66 games this season, leading the team in plus/minus (+12) and penalty minutes (124).
Meanwhile, the loss in the Twin Cities dropped the Ducks to 23-40-3 on the season and 13-17-2 away from home ice. Now split one game a piece, Anaheim and Minnesota will conclude a three-game season series next week at Honda Center.
"We did a better job in the third creating speed through the neutral zone," Jakob Silfverberg said. "You could tell in the second period we got caught on our heels. We were chipping pucks in and not getting any pressure on their defense, so they just turned and broke the puck out. I think we did a better job in the third in creating that speed through the neutral zone, helping us get in on the forecheck and sustain some offensive zone time. Obviously we didn't score any goals and I think that was the biggest part of it, just didn't get [enough] offensive zone time.
"We did a better job with it in the third so hopefully we can keep doing that [in Winnipeg]."
The Ducks will have their hands full on the second night of a back-to-back with a Winnipeg team currently leading the Central Division by point percentage (.669). The Jets have claimed both of the first two meetings this season against the Ducks in 4-2 and 3-1 wins at Honda Center in December and January.
Winnipeg also owns one of the NHL's best home-ice records (22-9-2), despite a 4-2 loss to division rival Nashville on Wednesday night.
"A lot (was missing),” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness told NHL.com's Darrin Bauming. “The execution wasn't there. Face-off readiness, they were jumping by us. We were winning draws and getting ourselves into trouble. The execution was way off from the start. … Give them credit, they played a great game. They came at us."
Winnipeg (41-19-5, 87 points) sits two points back of Colorado with two games-in-hand. The club's .669 point percentage is good for second in the Western Conference, trailing only Vancouver.
