Ducks fall at home to Blackhawks

ANAHEIM –– The Ducks’ low-wattage offense and spotty power play were on display Tuesday evening as they let the very-much rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks complete a Southern Californian sweep, with Chicago dispatching the Ducks, 4-2, at Honda Center a night after it rallied to beat the Kings, 4-3.

Brock McGinn and Mason McTavish picked up largely academic goals for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál came up with 25 saves. McTavish’s tally was his first of the season. He, Frank Vatrano, Trevor Zegras and Cutter Gauthier have combined for a tremendously underwhelming three goals this season, none of which came at even strength and two of which were empty-netters.

Isaak Phillips, Teuvo Teräväinen, Seth Jones and Ryan Donato scored a goal apiece for Chicago. Connor Bedard conducted the Blackhawks’ orchestra with three assists, and former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall added two more. Arvid Söderblom stopped 37 of 39 shots, carrying forward the solid goaltending of Petr Mrázek just a day earlier.

Although the Ducks lapped Chicago and then some on expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick, it was Chicago doubling up their hosts on the scoreboard. Chicago was perfect on the power play despite drawing three fewer penalties, while the Ducks were zero-for-four until McTavish tapped in a rebound six-on-four with four seconds to play. In all, the Ducks had plenty of activity, but noticeably less in the way of achievement.

“We had a season-high 92 shot attempts, but we could have shot the puck 20 more times,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “You don’t want to take creativity away. You want the guys to be able to make plays, but you also want them to prioritize shooting pucks in primary scoring areas.”

He added: “The priority, yesterday in our meetings and in our practice, was offensive-zone time. I thought we [executed] that because we did have a lot of offensive-zone time.”

Chicago drove the dagger into the Ducks’ collective heart when Bedard sauced up a pass into the slot for a Philipp Kurashev one-timer that generated a rebound pursued by a drove of players before Donato pushed it home with 2:17 to play.

Earlier in the stanza, just as enthusiasm started to wane in the arena, the Ducks’ broke through with the first goal of the third period and their first tally of the game. Though Olen Zellweger’s pass initially eluded Ross Johnston, who fought former Duck Pat Maroon in the second period, Johnston skated it down in the left circle to turn a broken play into a goal with a deft dish for McGinn. His second goal and Johnston’s first point of the season came at the 10:16 mark.

McGinn credited Johnston for “creating energy” with his fight and making him “fortunate” enough to finish a “great play,” while Johnston said he simply spotted McGinn in his periphery before he “pushed it over and ‘Ginner’ did the rest.”

The second period had evened play out somewhat, with the Ducks still generating possession and zone time at a bit higher rate than Chicago, but the Blackhawks still stretched their lead to three goals.

They made it two-for-two on the power play with 1:55 remaining in the middle frame. Bedard, who had been thwarted on two partial breakaways by Pavel Mintyukov’s backcheck and Dostál’s alert save, froze the defense by faking a shot before floating a saucer pass to Jones for a one-timer from high in the left circle.

After the Blackhawks’ second unit had dazzled on their first man-advantage opportunity, the top group made its imprint on the match.

“Both units were moving it quick, knowing our outs and battling. If you outwork the PK, you should be able to get the puck and let your skill kind of do the work,” Bedard said.

In the opening 20 minutes, the Ducks had built an 11-1 shot advantage, but Chicago’s second bid was dangerous and its third was deadly. Bedard’s short-side wrister was repelled by Dostál, but on Chicago’s next trip into the zone made the count 1-0 in its favor.

Bedard hit the blue line with speed and laid a soft pass for hard-skating Phillips, who ripped a wrist shot under the crossbar, to the far side and through a formidable Tyler Bertuzzi screen. Dostál never even saw the perfectly placed shot.

Though the Ducks outright dominated play analytically, they would submerge themselves further when Alex Killorn’s late-period penalty led to a Chicago shooting spree that would have made Al Capone blush.

Of the 11 shots Chicago had in the period, six of them came during their 1:40 of power-play time. The sixth was a one-timer from the right faceoff dot by Teräväinen that made it 2-0, a score that stood after at the first intermission despite Trevor Zegras’ menacing chance in the final minute.

This defeat kicked off the Ducks’ season-long, six-game homestand, which will continue on Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks.