The Ducks will conclude one of the season's final homestands tonight as part of a special evening at Honda Center, a battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Women in Sports Weekend.
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Tonight's game concludes Anaheim's annual Women in Sports Weekend at Honda Center. For a full overview of the festivities, click here.
On the ice, the Ducks will look to close the homestand with a second straight win after earning a 4-0 victory Thursday night over Chicago. Alex Killorn scored twice in the second period that night while Frank Vatrano would net his 30th goal of the season, all providing more than enough run support in goaltender Lukas Dostal's first career shutout.
"Obviously a shutout is something special, but I'm just glad that we could take a win," the ever-humble Dostal said. "We had a losing streak, so I'm just happy that we could break that tonight."
"I thought we played a team game," assessed head coach Greg Cronin. "You could feel a little bit, like, there's a little stress. I've coached a long time and when you lose seven straight there's some anxiety involved. I thought the first period we were a little bit tentative. We weren't getting shots through. And then as the game went on I thought we got a lot more confident. Then when we got that first goal, you could feel a lot of weight lift off the bench."
The win snapped Anaheim's seven-game skid and pushed the club to 24-43-3 on the season with 12 games still to play.
"In the third period, we played a smart game with a 3-0 lead," Cronin said. "I don't think we gave them too much...I thought we did a good job keeping them to the outside."
Vatrano's 30th of the season came early in that third period, clinching a special milestone for the first-time All-Star winger and all but sealing Anaheim's bounce-back win.
"He's been sitting on 29 for a little bit, so it's just nice for him to get that and not have to worry about that anymore," Killorn said with a smile. "He's obviously playing great hockey. I think, for us though, this was a huge game for us. We had some meetings and we have been wanting to get off this slide. So it was a great response, for sure."
"It feels awesome," Vatrano admitted. "It hasn't come easy for me the last eight or so games, but it definitely felt good.
"Goal scoring is a funny thing. They come in bunches. I was getting my chances and guys were putting the puck on my stick, looking for me every single game."
Anaheim's lineup could get further reinforcements up front tonight too, including a major bullet potentially dodged two nights prior. Rookie center Leo Carlsson left Thursday's game after a knee-on-knee collision in the Anaheim slot with Chicago defenseman Alex Vlasic. Carlsson was helped off the ice by teammates and did not return, but skated in full with the team at practice Saturday. The 19-year-old Carlsson has tallied 24 points in his first 43 NHL games, currently fifth among NHL rookies in points per game.
Also on the ice for that skate Saturday morning at Great Park Ice was forward Trevor Zegras, who has not played since breaking his ankle on an awkward fall into the boards in January vs. Nashville. Cronin said Zegras would be a game-time decision for tonight's action.
On the other bench tonight is a desparate Tampa Bay team in search of its eighth straight postseason berth. The Bolts last night erased a two-goal deficit to the Kings in the final five minutes of regulation, but could not finish the job in overtime as defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov's game-winner denied Tampa the dramatic comeback victory.
"A game that didn’t look like we were going to get anything out of, we were able to crawl back and get a point,” Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos told NHL.com's Dan Greenspan. “So, you talk about collecting as many points as you can.”
Tampa Bay (38-25-7, 83 points) now holds a five-point lead for the Eastern Conference's top Wild Card spot and sits six points back of Toronto for third in the Atlantic Division.
