Recap: Ducks Erase Early Deficit, Rally for 5-3 Comeback Win in Columbus

The Ducks erased an early three-goal deficit with five unanswered goals, rallying for a 5-3 comeback victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight at Nationwide Arena.
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The win marked Anaheim's fifth multi-goal comeback of the year, tied for most in the NHL. It also marked the fourth three-goal comeback victory on the road in franchise history, just the second to finish shy of overtime.

"A great credit to our men to have a neutral mindset and deal with the task at hand after getting behind by three," head coach Dallas Eakins said. "The easy choice is to pack it in and get through the rest of the game. We chose the hard choice to work through it and keep battling. The hard way is always the rewarding way."
With the win in net, John Gibson passed Guy Hebert (173) for second-most in Ducks history, now trailing only Jean-Sebastian Giguere (206).

Gibson earned the win in relief of Anthony Stolarz, stopping all 18 Blue Jackets shots in the final 40 minutes of regulation. Stolarz left the game following a first period that was all Columbus, stopping 12-of-15 shots.
Cam Fowler, Troy Terry, Trevor Zegras, Adam Henrique and Isac Lundestrom led Anaheim with multi-point nights. Fowler, Zegras, Henrique, Simon Benoit and Max Jones scored.
Mathieu Olivier, Jack Roslovic and Nick Blankbenburg scored for the Blue Jackets, who lost their third straight game and fell to 13-30-2 on the season. Elvis Merzlikins took the loss in net with 28 saves.
As most comeback efforts do, the evening got off to a nightmarish start for the Ducks, who despite a couple of strong shifts early on trailed 2-0 by the first television timeout.
Olivier opened the scoring on an end-to-end rush, taking a bank pass that Eric Robinson chipped around the pinching Fowler, racing ahead on a 2-on-1 and beating Stolarz to the blocker side.
The 25-year-old Olivier has three goals in 40 games this season, matching his NHL career-best set with Nashville two years ago.
Roslovic doubled the advantage four minutes later following a Ducks defensive zone turnover. As Anaheim tried to clear the zone up the left side of the ice, Roslovic stepped in front of a pass at the top of the circle, turning and firing a snap shot just under the crossbar to put Columbus ahead 2-0.
A former Winnipeg Jet, Roslovic has five goals in 10 career matchups against Anaheim.
The Ducks' deficit hit three late in the period on a well-executed offensive zone play by the Jackets. Offseason signee Johnny Gaudreau collected a pass in the right faceoff circle, dancing away from the Ducks defense before delivering a return feed to Patrik Laine, who deftly backhanded it to Blankenburg behind him. Blankenburg took his time to line up his shot, eventually firing it over Stolarz's right shoulder to cap Columbus' three-goal first period.
Blankenburg, a 5-9 defenseman, has points in three of his last five games (1-2=3) and 3-2=5 points in 12 NHL appearances this season.
Gibson replaced Stolarz in net to start the second, and the Ducks seemed to find some life, completely flipping the script on the shaky opening frame.
Seconds after the second period's opening faceoff and as Columbus tried to skate the puck up right wing, Fowler poked it free to the middle of the ice, where Lundestrom turned and lofted an area pass off the far boards to Terry. The All-Star winger sprinted into the loose puck, then directing his pass through a sliding Blue Jackets defender for Henrique to shovel home on the backdoor.

Henrique has goals in four straight games, seven goals in his last 11 appearances and a team-leading 16 on the season. The four-game streak is the second-longest of Henrique's 12-year NHL career, trailing only a six-game run in 2013-14 with New Jersey.
Terry, who would add another assist later on, has five helpers in his last four games. He leads the Ducks in scoring (12-26=38) and assists.
Playing in his first game since Dec. 1 at Dallas, Lundestrom's two assists on the night marked his sixth and seventh of the year.
Later in the period, Anaheim got within on one on a beautiful end-to-end rush of its own, with Fowler both starting and finishing the play. The veteran defenseman got his feet moving through the neutral zone, leaving a pass for Zegras just inside the line and hustling his way to the net. All the while, Zegras found Comtois on right wing with a cross-ice pass and the big winger had just enough time to turn and feed Fowler on the doorstep, where he tipped it past Merzlikins to make it a 3-2 hockey game.

The assist extended Zegras' scoring streak to four games (3-3=6) and gave the 21-year-old points in eight of his last nine games (5-5=10).
Comtois also grabbed an assist and now has three points in his last five games.
From there, the Ducks went right back to work, officially eliminating what was a three-goal lead with some offense from an unusual source. As Anaheim retrieved an offensive zone dump-in, Terry skated the puck up the left wing wall towards the point before turning and setting up Benoit for a one-time blast, which the defensively-minded blueliner got all of, crushing his shot through Lundestrom's screen in front to tie the game.

Zegras gave Anaheim it's first lead early in the third, taking a pass at the point from Fowler, stepping into the high slot and roofing a wrister over Merzlikins' glove.

The goal became the seventh game-winning tally of Zegras' 145-game NHL career.
Jones capped the comeback with less than five minutes to play, burying a big insurance goal on a opportunistic effort at the Columbus crease. As Megna redirected a centering pass in tight on Merzilikins, the netminder thought the puck had carromed to his left. Instead, it had bounced right into the slot, where Jones found it first and chipped it over Merzlikin's right leg to seal a 5-3 comeback victory.

The Ducks continue their six-game road trip Saturday in Buffalo.