ANAHEIM — There’s almost never a dull moment when it comes to the 2022-23 Ducks.
Case in point: Sunday night.
The Ducks looked down and out – down two goals to the Nashville Predators when coach Dallas Eakins pulled goalie John Gibson with over two minutes to go. Getting a single goal with a goaltender pulled for an extra attacker is an accomplishment but the Ducks managed two.
The first came off the stick of Troy Terry on a nice feed from defenseman Colton White at 17:39. Once the Ducks had digested that goal, rookie Mason McTavish scored his second goal of the game, and 16th of the season, sending it to overtime with 26 seconds remaining in regulation.
In a wild 72 seconds of overtime, where Gibson stopped one breakaway but couldn’t stop another, Nashville eventually prevailed 5-4 at Honda Center. The winning goal came on a 2 on 0 with Phillip Tomasino feeding Tommy Novak at 1:12 of overtime, and Gibson had no chance on it. Novak had a three-point night, scoring twice and adding an assist. Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler had three assists in nearly 28 minutes of action.
The overtime loss salvaged a point for the Ducks but it took some of the luster away from the 11th-hour rally. Like a lot of what has gone on with the Ducks this season – some good and some bad to digest – when all is said and done.
“It’s what we’ve been doing that maybe we didn’t do the first 30 games or whatever – find different ways,” Terry said. “Even when we’ve had an off night – and didn’t come out strong- we were able to not get too far behind and find a way to get back into it. “At the end, we were sending everything at them.”
Despite the loss in overtime, Eakins was pleased with the resilience that his team demonstrated, in rallying to tie the game late and force overtime.
“At this point in the season, with where we’re at in the standings, I think it would be really easy to watch a team mail it in – and our guys refuse to do it,” said Eakins. “They’re working, we’re improving. Our team game is improving. We’ve got young players improving. We get down in a game like that against a very desperate team and we’ve still got our foot on the pedal. I think it’s just a great testament to not only the improvement of the team, but the character of our veteran players that’s certainly rubbing off on our younger players.”
Terry made a reference to not getting some of the bounces and a true illustration came in the third period, an improbable bank-shot goal, going in off the back of Gibson’s neck. The goal came from Predators forward Kiefer Sherwood who only had scored once in 13 games this season. Sherwood started his professional career in the Ducks system and played the first 60 games of his NHL career in Anaheim.
Sherwood’s goal broke the 2-2 tie at 1:47 and third-line forward Yakov Trenin added what appeared to be an insurance goal at 13:36, making it 4-2, before the Ducks rallied with their late surge. Also scoring for the Ducks was Frank Vatrano, at 4:46 of the second period. McTavish’s first goal of the game, at 15:44 of the first period, and Vatrano’s pulled the Ducks even after they trailed 2-0 in the first period.
“It’s a hard league – very few people can just come in and figure it out and he’s light years ahead of most guys that come in,” Terry said of McTavish. “The growth he’s had since the start in all areas, not just scoring but holding on to pucks down low and using his body to protect it. Defensively he’s always in the right areas. All the little things with him is what stands out the most.
“You see why he was such a high pick.”
To say that plenty has changed since the last time the Ducks faced (and lost) against the Predators – back on Dec. 30 – is quite an understatement.
Five of the Predators’ top nine forwards in that particular game were not on hand Sunday at Honda Center because they were either traded or are out with an injury. Nino Niederreiter (traded to Winnipeg), Tanner Jeannot (traded to Tampa Bay), Mikael Granlund (traded to Pittsburgh) and Filip Forsberg (injured) and Ryan Johanson (injured).