Tag: Anaheim Ducks

Utah Hockey Club defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) and Anaheim Ducks left wing Cutter Gauthier (61) battle for the puck in the first period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wed Mar 12, 2025 (AP News photo)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev fed Dylan Guenther the game-winning goal in the third period for his 300th career point en route to defeating the Ducks on home ice.

The Utah Hockey Club welcomed the Anaheim Ducks to Delta Center on Wednesday night for the third and final meeting between the clubs this season. Anaheim prevailed 5-4 during both previous encounters which ended in overtime and a shootout. Utah entered the game 4 points of Anaheim in the Wild Card hunt.

At 11:03 of the first period, Utah forward Jack McBain tipped in a blast from Ian Cole for his 12th goal of the season with the additional assist by Josh Doan. Anaheim backup goaltender Ville Husso turned away 16 of 17 shots in a lopsided frame wherein the Ducks unsuccessfully challenged Karel Vejmelka with 8 shots on goal.

Alexander Kerfoot put Utah up 2-0 at 14:31 of the second period on a snap shot for his 8th of the season, assisted by Dylan Guenther and Barrett Hayton. Less than two minutes later the Ducks got one back on a goal from forward Alex Killorn, his 14th of the season, assisted by Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier.

Early in the third period, Mikhail Sergachev went to the box for hooking against Mason McTavish who would immediately cash it in and tie the score on the power play for his 18th goal of the season, assisted by Trevor Zegras and Jackson LaCombe. A few minutes later, with Olen Zellweger in the sin bin for hooking against Josh Doan, Sergachev would redeem himself assisting on a slap shot by Dylan Guenther which put Utah up for good 3-2 as Karel Vejmelka locked down the Utah net the rest of the way. Guenther’s goal was his 24th of the season and his 8th game-winner. The assist gave Sergachev 300 points in his NHL career, the last 43 of which coming in his debut season with Utah.

In the locker room, Utah forward Barrett Hayton talked about tonight’s win. “Definitely a huge win, huge home stand. Obviously, it would have been really nice to get all four points, but the way we were able to fight back in that Toronto game and get a point, it’s huge for us. Same thing tonight, it was a grind. They were playing tight, they’re a dangerous team, and it was obviously a fight to the end there. But [Vejmelka] was kicking the guys who were doing a good job in front of them. Great three points.” Utah had 3rd period leads in each of their prior games against Anaheim which were lost in overtime. When asked about maintaining focus to hold on to tonight’s one-goal lead in the third, Hayton said, “It’s just about keeping poise in our game. Obviously, I think probably in the last couple of weeks, we’ve done a pretty good job with that once we’ve gotten a lead and not sitting back. That’s something that can kill you when you’re in these games. If you sit back and let them come and play with pace on you, it’s just not a not a good game plan. So I think we’ve done a good job of playing with poise, making plays, playing smart, but still playing with pace. … It all starts with preparation. I think all the guys in here are professionals and take their preparation really seriously. It’s kind of just a mental thing, knowing you need to start with pace and play direct, especially early on in games as you’re getting into the game, you don’t want to play too fancy or too risky. You want to get into the game, get on them, and allow that flow to build before you make those plays that might be a little more high risk.”

Dylan Guenther also talked about protecting the late lead. “We’re getting a little bit better at those situations every game. I don’t think we played our best game today, but we found a way to win, and we managed the puck pretty well at the end of the game.” On his game-winning power play goal, Guenther remarked, “When I saw [Anaheim] was low, I wanted [Keller] to go up to [Sergachev], and then he gave it over to me. So, it was just good recognition. I feel like we’ve gotten pretty good chemistry as we’ve continued to play together.”

Head coach André Tourigny opened his briefing by saying, “What I take from that game is the way we played in the third, how we protected the lead, the sacrifices our guys (made), the way they were engaged and disciplined, the resilience we had. That was great to see.” Talking about Guenther’s late-game, Tourigny commented, “A lot of confidence (in Guenther)…I’m more happy about the shot he blocked when the game was on the line than his goal–in the sense that that’s a choice you make. Scoring a goal is a pretty easy choice when you have the opportunity. But when you decide to put your body on the line and sacrifice yourself for the team and do that for your brothers, I think that’s huge.” His comment about brothers prompted one reporter to ask about the family mindset on the team, to which Bear responded, “I think it’s a strength of our organization. For a few years now, the togetherness and brotherhood we have; it’s special. I think the guys care so much about each other. Sometimes when you care about someone, you try to do too much. I think, in general, our team is really close. They love each other, they fight for each other, they’re together and everything.”

With Connor Ingram out of the lineup, Tourigny was asked how he plans to manage Vejmelka’s time in net during the final month of the regular season. “We will do one game at a time. For us it’s playoff time. We need to make sure we manage a lot of practice time. You need to practice to keep the skill level at a high level, but you can have shorter practice, you can do half of a practice or not taking shots after the morning skate, those kinds of things to make sure we keep the workload lower so it’s not as much the number of times he will go on the ice, it’s more the length.”

Utah’s win places the club just two points out of a Wild Card spot as they embark upon a 3-game road trip to Seattle, Vancouver, and Edmonton before returning March 20 against the Buffalo Sabres.

Anaheim Ducks Troy Terry (19) shoots as defenseman Jackson LaCombe (2) assists while Utah’s goaltender Jaxson Stauber (33) defends with defenseman Ian Cole (28) and center Logan Cooley (92) at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sun Dec 22, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Tom Walker

Utah starts fast but fails to hold on in 5-4 shoutout loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah Hockey Club returned home on Sunday for the first of three games at Delta Center, a welcome respite from the previous four consecutive one-game visits to home ice. The road has been good to Utah where they have won their last seven including Friday’s 2-1 victory in Minnesota in which Dylan Guenther scored his 15th and 16th goals of the season. On Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks, Utah hoped to build upon last week’s overtime win versus Vancouver which snapped a five-game home losing streak.

Captain Clayton Keller struck quickly for Utah just 86 seconds into the game with his 12th goal of the season, assisted by Juuso Välimäki and Barrett Hayton. Anaheim wasted no time evening things up a few minutes later as Robby Fabbri netted his third goal of the season for the Ducks, assisted by Mason McTavish. Late in the first, Utah center Barrett Hayton put his squad up 2-1 with his sixth goal of the season, assisted by Olli Määttä and Keller.

In the second period, Utah padded its lead early with a power play goal by Logan Cooley, his eighth of the season, assisted by Keller and Mikhail Sergachev, followed a few minutes later as Keller recorded his second goal and fourth point of the game, assisted by Sergachev and Nick Schmaltz, giving the home team a 4-1 lead.

Unfortunately for Utah, that’s where the wheels fell off and Anaheim began to mount its comeback. The Ducks were able to trim their deficit to 4-2 midway through the second period as center Isac Lundestrom found the back of the net for his 4th of the season, assisted by Olen Zellweger and Jansen Harkins.

With less than eight minutes remaining in the third period there was a scrum at the Utah net where Robby Fabbri somehow managed to knock a puck through the pads of netminder Jaxson Stauber which appeared to travel in super slow motion behind Stauber and trickle just across the line to draw Anaheim back to within one. Fabbri’s second goal of the game was assisted by Cutter Gauthier and Pavel Mintyukov.

At 13:31 of the third period, Utah forward Logan Cooley was sent to the penalty box for slashing against Mason McTavish. With just 16 seconds remaining in the penalty kill, Ducks winger Brett Leason completed Anaheim’s comeback with his 4th goal of the season, assisted by Gauthier and Zellweger, making it 4-4.

Following a scoreless overtime period, the two squads sent their champions to center ice for the shootout. Utah elected to go first, and Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal turned away Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller, and Nick Bjugstad. Keller’s shot went off the crossbar and fans initially cheered as if it had crossed the goal line, but the official and video replay both indicated no-goal. For his part, Jaxson Stauber turned away Ducks penalty shot specialist Troy Terry and Brock McGinn, but ultimately could not stop Mason McTavish who won the game for Anaheim on a snap shot.

In Utah’s locker room forward Barrett Hayton, who scored the second goal of the night, commented, “Right now, it doesn’t feel like we walked away with a point with the way we handled that second half and obviously handled the lead. (That) can’t happen. It’s disappointing.” Addressing how things unraveled, he said, “I think it happened a little bit at the start of the game and then creeped back in. I think (we were) just getting too loose, giving up too much. You give a team that many power plays, it’s tough. I think there were a lot of things throughout the entire game. Obviously, fell apart in the third. It wasn’t good enough.”

Captain Clayton Keller weighed in, “It was kind of a back-and-forth game. We just weren’t good on our details. Just kind of played a little too loose. That’s what happens; they get some life, they get some bounces and we unfortunately lose the game. But the good thing about this is (that) we play tomorrow. We don’t have to think about it too much. We’ll address it and be better from it.” With regard to his four point game, Keller said, “Just playing simple, doing everything I can to help this team win. My linemates have done a great job as well. We’re on to tomorrow. … We’ll address it in the morning tomorrow, the things we need to do better. I still feel like we have a lot of confidence in this room. We still got a point tonight. We still have confidence and a quick reset (for) tomorrow.”

Utah Hockey Club head coach André Tourigny also talked about turning the page to tomorrow’s contest against the Dallas Stars. “We have to. Today is a good testimony of our maturity. That’s unfortunate. It is what it is. Anaheim is a tough team to play. They apply pressure, they have talent. You have to know that. And you need to show up with your ‘A’ game every night…Last week, I was here sitting in front of you and I was talking about urgency. That’s the most important thing. We need to have energy, yeah. But, urgency is a super important currency. If you have it, we can play against anybody and we can sustain success. If we don’t, you have your answer. That’s the problem tonight. The guys wanted to play well; they worked hard. I didn’t feel anyone was not working that hard. But I think we were not as urgent. We didn’t stop on pucks. We were not reloading with the same urgency. We didn’t take the simple decisions. We tried to make plays where there were no plays. That turnover goes on the other side. You take bad penalties. That kind of stuff. That’s just urgency. If you play for your life, you don’t do those things. It’s just what happened today. Those guys, they mean good. They want to do the right thing. They’re as mad as me right now. Nobody’s happy. They care; they care a ton. I have no doubt about it. We need to learn from it. That’s, unfortunately, the maturity part. Same thing when I was a young guy. You need to go through some adversity, some battle scars. So you learn from it and you get better…It’s frustrating, but it is what it is. I’m not mad at them. I’m mad at the situation. It’s (about) how we react to it. Adversity is what builds you. It shapes you. Either you become better or you become worse. If you become worse, that’s who you choose to be. That’s not what we will choose to be.”

The mood was much lighter in Anaheim’s locker room after the game which was filled with upbeat music including the resurgent Village People anthem “YMCA.” Ducks forward Robby Fabbri, who scored twice in the game, spoke about his team’s comeback. “I don’t think it was anything specific that we did. I think we just didn’t stray away from our team. When you’re down like that on the road, it’s easy just to pack it in. We don’t have that in our room here, and we showed that tonight.”

Anaheim’s head coach Greg Cronin addressed the media about keeping the faith when coming from behind. “I mean, it’s kind of a weird game, but there’s a lot of penalties. You know, they got up three to one, and I thought when it got four to one, there was that point in the game where we were trying to generate some energy internally to get the faith and the belief back. And then we got that second goal, which really changed the dynamic of the game. I didn’t attribute a lot to the physicality, I just thought we started skating more in the third period.” With regard to that third period, “Ironically, we had the five on three, and then we ended up making it a four on three. Then we ended up, you know, killing a penalty for 30 seconds… but I thought after that was over, we had that goal at the goal mouth [the third goal], when we made it four to three, that goal changed it. We could just tell there was more belief in our play, and then I think there was a little bit more confidence that if we got pucks down deep, we got them back, and would get an opportunity to get some scoring chances off of direct shots or rebounds.”

Cronin talked about the extra incentive to get a win for the dads who are tagging along on this road trip. “I don’t know what they were thinking about. I know after the second period, I had told them that the dads are here, and they have come a long way to watch you guys play. Let’s finish this off and get a win. Killorn’s dad, Matt, read the pregame lineup… he did a great job, so I’m gonna carry him with us on all the trips.”

Utah will immediately lace up their skates on Monday at 7:00pm MST for their final game before Christmas against the Dallas Stars. Dallas won their previous matchup 2-1 at Delta Center three weeks ago. The two teams are tied for points in the Central Division with 38 each, but Dallas has a game in hand.