Ducks finally turn on the power
TAMPA, Fla. — The Ducks’ special teams played a key role in a bounce-back win.
Rickard Rakell and Brandon Montour had rare power-play goals, John Gibson made 31 saves and the Ducks rebounded from a one-sided loss by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 Saturday night.
The Ducks entered with the NHL's second-worst power play, going two for 31 over their first nine games, but they went two for two with the man advantage Saturday, while Tampa Bay's second-best unit in the NHL failed to score on four chances.
“Special teams turned it, that was it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Rakell got his second goal midway through the third and Hampus Lindholm also scored for the Ducks, who lost 8-3 Thursday night at Florida.
Ryan Getzlaf had three assists.
“We knew, obviously, we had to be better when you get embarrassed like that,” Gibson said. “We knew we were playing a good team, so we definitely had to be on our game.”
Lightning stars Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov both snapped franchise record-tying 11game point streaks to start the season. Martin St. Louis also accomplished the feat in 2009-10.
Stamkos and Kucherov were limited to two shots apiece.
“Those guys are as good as they get in the league right now,” Getzlaf said. “Obviously, what they're doing, we pay special attention to them.”
Rakell opened the scoring at 10:13 of the second on the Ducks' first power play.
After Montour, on the power play, and Tampa Bay’s Chris Kunitz traded goals 57 seconds apart late in the second, Lindholm made it 3-1 from the high slot with 0.1 second left in the period.
“I knew there were a few seconds left, so I tried cheating down a little bit [from the blue line],” Lindhom said. “It ends up right on my stick.”
Gibson made a lunging stop on Yanni Gourde's wraparound and Stamkos' left circle power-play shot in the second. TODAY AT CAROLINA When: 2 p.m. PDT On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 830. Update: The Ducks (5-4-1) will look to come away from their four-game trip with three victories when they face the Hurricanes (4-4-1). ...Sami Vatanen and Ryan Miller suited up for the first time all season. With the team’s first back-to-back contest of the campaign, it’s likely Miller will make his Ducks debut in goal against the Hurricanes.