The Ducks took away the time and space from the Predators' forwards and were able to limit odd-man rushes and high-quality scoring chances in Game 3. They know they're going to have to play even better because they expect a significantly better effort from the Predators.
"Yeah, we had a few breakdowns here and there, but for the most part we accomplished what we wanted to do," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said Wednesday. "We got a win, and we've got to be better [Thursday] knowing they're going to come out a lot harder than they did."
The Ducks were undisciplined, particularly after the whistles, and didn't defend to the level they thought they could in Games 1 and 2. Although they took five penalties in Game 3, the Ducks were otherwise happy with the way they played and want to build off of that effort to even the series.
"They're going to make adjustments, but really it comes down to what we do," Ducks forward Shawn Horcoff said. "I thought [Tuesday] we did a much better job getting some speed through the neutral zone. I thought we got in on the forecheck better. We were able to sustain some. I thought we were better in front of our net. Just our overall game play was better. I thought our emotions were a lot more in control.
"The playoffs are fickle because you want your emotions to be high. At the same time you need to be controlled. We still took too many penalties. We addressed that today, and there's still some other areas that we need to get better in."
Goaltender Frederik Andersen made his series debut in Game 3 and made 27 saves for his second-career postseason shutout. He was given the start after John Gibson lost the first two games of the series.
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau has been vocal about his confidence in each goaltender all season. He wasn't surprised with Andersen's effort, and hopes he can be better in Game 4.
"It says he's a good goalie, and he has been all year," Boudreau said. "There's been very little pockets that he's had bad stretches in, but that's over the whole tenure of how long he's been here. I mean again, you talk about calming influences, he was pretty calm in the net with his movement and everything else, and I think that helped too. It helped [Tuesday], but that's not saying that they're not going to come out and barrage us [Thursday]. We'll need [Andersen] at his best if that happens."
Boudreau said he didn't anticipate making any lineup changes for Game 4.
