During a five-game road trip that began with coach Joel Quenneville’s return to Chicago and ends against another former Quenneville-coached club, the Anaheim Ducks are going through a good test.
Anaheim will play the fourth game of the trip on Saturday afternoon against the winless Tampa Bay Lightning at home. The 10-day trip ends Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.
The Ducks are 2-0-1 on the trip from the Midwest to the East and South.
The Pacific Division team scored four times in 15 minutes in the third period to win a second straight game Thursday, beating the Boston Bruins 7-5 behind Mikael Granlund’s career-high five points (two goals, three assists) and Nikita Nesterenko’s four assists.
Granlund, Nesterenko and Troy Terry each had a +4 rating.
Still, Granlund said the Ducks need to fix the game in their own end.
“It was a good road win,” Granlund said. “We scored seven goals, and that’s pretty good on the road, but we have to clean up and don’t want to give up five goals in a game. At the same time, (we won) two points and that’s all we wanted.”
Granlund, the team’s third-line center, and Leo Carlsson lead the Ducks with eight points each, followed by Terry with seven. Cutter Gauthier has a team-best five goals.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov is on the verge of a major milestone, but the last-place club in the Eastern Conference probably isn’t thinking about it.
A three-time winner of the Art Ross Trophy, Kucherov, 32, had two assists on Thursday, leaving him one point shy of 1,000. He will be the 101st NHL player to reach this milestone in his career.
The biggest concern was a third straight home loss in regulation.
Last season, the Lightning had a 29-8-4 record on home ice.
“I actually really liked our game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the team’s 3-2 last-minute loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. “I didn’t like the penalties we took. I thought they were careless penalties that put us in danger in the third. And I didn’t like the last minute or the result. There were a ton of positives to take from the game.
“But unfortunately it’s a results-oriented game, and we didn’t get a result.”
With 54 seconds left in regulation, Chicago’s Ryan Donato scored the game-winning goal on a long rebound with goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy out of position after the initial save.
Donato’s fifth goal in a four-game stretch sank Tampa Bay in a game that seemed destined for overtime. The Lightning only have four points in seven games. Only the Calgary Flames have fewer with three points in eight games.
It was the third straight home loss to the young Blackhawks in more than two seasons, but the Lightning’s shot production – a recent problem – was up, as they led 31-25. However, they went 0-for-4 on the power play.
Kucherov isn’t the only Lightning player on the verge of a big milestone.
Captain Victor Hedman is just one point away from 800, while Brandon Hagel is two points away from 300. Anthony Cirelli is four points away from 300.
–Field level media
