The Ducks fly south down the east coast for the second half of a weekend back-to-back, today facing off with the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center.
PUCK DROP: 2 P.M. PT | WATCH: VICTORY+ | AUDIO: DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER
Anaheim hits the halfway point of the road trip looking to turn things around after a pair of lopsided losses over the past few days, 6-2 to St. Louis on Thursday and 6-0 last night in Philadelphia. The Ducks fell behind early in both games, igniting a pair of raucous home crowds, and could not generate enough offense later on to get within striking distance in the third period.
"[The Flyers] played harder, they played faster and they won puck battles," head coach Greg Cronin said. "We got out of the first period at 2-0, and the second period was an even period. I thought it was terrible they got the third goal on the wide shot, because you're still in the game and we've come back all season from down 2-0...Then they came out in the third period and said, 'This is our game, we're going to take,' and we didn't have a response.
"We had a stretch there where we were winning games against the elite teams in the league. That team is still in the room. They've got to make that decision on how they want to play. There's not a lot of time to look their wounds...We'll learn and we'll get through it."
The second straight loss dropped Anaheim to 17-20-5 on the season, bringing a rough, decisive halt to a successful stretch that had seen the Ducks collect points in five of six games.
"We had a tough game against St. Louis and I think some of those habits snuck in [Saturday]," winger Cutter Gauthier said. "We know we're a good team. We went on a hot streak right there before that. We've just got to get back to the basics and keep playing our game. Hopefully we do that tomorrow in Carolina.
"It's a long season. We play 82 games. We're not going to let one game affect us throughout the whole year. We're right back at it Sunday. We've got a clean slate and play a good team [today]. We've got to come out ready to go."
That good team is a likely playoff-bound Hurricanes squad, owners of a 17-5-0 mark on home ice and wins in consecutive games over Toronto and Vancouver. The Hurricanes shut out the Canucks 2-0 on Friday, limiting the visitors to just 14 shots on net.
“It was a weird game. Not a lot going on," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour told NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg. “It’s a lot of hockey [on a back-to-back]. I think it’s a product of that too. You could see the tank was on ‘E.’ But I thought we dug in, and a couple plays were the difference in the game.”
Carolina will honor franchise icon Eric Staal tonight, retiring his jersey #12 during a pregame ceremony. Staal will be the fourth player in franchise history to have his number retired, joining Brind'Amour, Ron Francis and Glen Wesley.
Carolina (26-15-2, 54 points) sits third in the Metropolitan Division.
