Ducks host Kings in first freeway faceoff of season – Orange County Register

With Friday’s stolen point in the bag, the Ducks left Colorado and returned home to host the Kings in their first freeway faceoff of the season on Sunday at Honda Center.

In Denver, the Ducks built a 2-0 lead with Leo Carlsson firing a puck over the line while inching toward the goal late in the first period and a goal by Ryan Strome after the puck would have been blown away must hit the net behind the Colorado goal. They took that advantage but forced overtime with 12.6 seconds left when Coloradoan Troy Terry secured a contest that the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon ended in the extra frame.

Even this consolation point would have been impossible without Lukáš Dostál’s octopus play in goal, where he stopped 45 pucks.

“He was our best player and he couldn’t come close,” Terry told Victory+. on Dostal “He was the only reason we got to this point tonight.”

Terry has scored a goal in each of the Ducks’ last three games, scoring the lone goal in a loss to Vegas and scoring the game-winning goal in an overtime win over Utah HC in the Ducks’ home opener. Carlsson has taken three points in his last two games and Dostál has never lost in regular time this year. He posted a 2-0-1 record, which included one shutout and was backed by a .927 save percentage.

In Colorado, the Ducks were without center Isac Lundestrom, who suffered an upper-body injury in the home opener, and Frank Vatrano, last year’s leading scorer, who was joining his wife, Rebecca, as they awaited the birth of their second daughter .

Although the Ducks flirted with being tripled in shots on goal by the Avs, another bright spot was rookie cutter Gauthier, who was virtually benched in the previous game. The rookie forward finished the game with a plus-two rating and played a total of three minutes more than he did against Utah.

“Cutter was much better. He ran, you could see he was determined,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin told reporters. “He pushed the puck past the goal; He did a lot of nice things.”