The Ducks are back on home ice for some Friday night hockey tonight at Honda Center, opening a four-game homestand with a matchup against the Florida Panthers.
PUCK DROP: 7 P.M. | TV: BALLY SPORTS WEST | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER | GET TICKETS
Tonight’s game will feature Anaheim’s annual Hockey Fights Cancer festivities, including a ceremonial puck, a JoyDrive in support of the Jessie Rees Foundation and more. For more information, click here.
On the ice, the Ducks return to Orange County tonight after splitting a two-game, back-to-back road trip earlier this week. The trek kicked off with Anaheim’s latest third-period comeback win, as the Ducks rallied from two goals down to defeat the Preds in regulation. The scene wouldn’t be so pretty a night later though, as Anaheim’s comeback bid would fall short in Colorado when the Avalanche ran away with an 8-2 victory thanks to a dominant third period.
“We just didn’t have a good game,” head coach Greg Cronin said. “We just played six games in [10] nights, it’s a back-to-back game and there wasn’t a lot of legs. Brain wasn’t working. We were consistently bad from the start to the finish.”
The loss, just Anaheim’s third in its last 11 games, dropped the club to 9-7-0 on the season and ended its five-game road winning streak.
“We’ve been playing some good hockey as of late, so can’t dwell on this one too much,” said Sam Carrick, who scored his fourth goal of the season in the loss. “Figure out what went wrong and move on to the next game.”
The Ducks now sit fourth in the Pacific Division, three points back of the third-place Kings.
Anaheim will host a Florida wrapping up its three-game California road trip after a 2-1 loss last night to in LA. Sam Reinhart cut into a two-goal deficit for the Panthers late in the third period, scoring his team-best 13th goal of the season, but the visitors from the Sunshine State would be unable to find an equalizer and force overtime.
“We were able to stick with it and kind of get ourselves back to have a fighting chance,” Reinhart told NHL.com’s Dan Greenspan. “You give them credit that they’re a team when they have the lead, it’s not easy to come back on them.”
The Panthers now head south down the 5 for a game that will include a whole lot of reunions on both sides of the puck. For the Ducks, former Panthers Radko Gudas and Frank Vatrano will welcome some old friends to their new hockey home. Signed as a free agent by Anaheim this offseason, Gudas helped Florida to the Stanley Cup Final last year, leading all NHL skaters in postseason hits. Meanwhile Vatrano spent four seasons in Sunrise, totaling 73 goals as a Panther.
On the other bench, Florida brings some familiar faces to back to Honda Center as well, goaltender Anthony Stolarz as well as defensemen Dmitry Kulikov, Josh Mahura and Brandon Montour. Montour could make his season debut tonight against his NHL original team after missing the first month of the season while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.
