Anaheim – trying a solid finish in the last 10 games of the season to close the year with a victory record, the Ducks fell in place of a third consecutive victory on Sunday, making teams of the Eastern Conference without favor after a defeat of 3-2 against the Atlantic Division leading the Maple Leafs of Toronto at the Honda Center.
The Ducks (32-33-8, 72 points) preceded Toronto (45-25-4, 94 points) at the start, but were down 1-0 to the first intermission when Max Domi marked with 36 seconds remaining on the clock.
A little manipulation of sticks allowed Domi to skate around the defender of the Ducks Radko Gudas in the slit, where the Canadian striker took a back above the goalkeeper Lukas goalkeeper for his eighth goal.
Despite the creation of five other chances of score in the first period, the Ducks had the chance not to be down for two.
Within three minutes following the drop in the washer, the Maple Leafs seemed to jump on a Matthew Knies finish of Auston Matthews. But the Ducks head coach Greg Cronin won a challenge because of a high stick along the Mitch Marner planks who helped accumulation.
Marner, however, compensated for this indiscretion at 6:29 am from the second period, capping a counterattack which he created with a turnover at the visitor’s blue line by loading the ice and beating the Dostal without help for his 23rd goal and 91st point, the fifth plus for a skater this season.
A minute and a half later, Leo Carlsson, freshly out of the first performance of four points in his career with the Ducks, half reduced the deficit of his 20th goal, a wrist shot which zoomed in the heavy traffic jetting the sight of the goalkeeper of Toronto, Joseph Woll, who made 28 stops.
Rightly so, the two best feedback teams in the third period (eight each) entered the last 20 minutes with the result suspended in balance.
From the penalty, the Ducks escaped without conceding despite a great early chance for the Maple Leafs, who rather committed a trigger penalty which gave the team at home an advantage of man.
At 2:16 a.m., Sam Colangelo des Ducks leveled the scoring on the power game, by crushing a post from the post before tidying up his own rebound for his seventh goal of the year.
The Ducks put pressure for a better NHL victory in ninth third period, but Toronto, in a dog struggle for the head of the Atlantic division with Florida and Tampa Bay, would not give the game like the New York Rangers at the Honda Center on Friday.
At 11:35 a.m., the Maple Leafs scored the winner of the match which gave them a three -point advantage on their nearest challenger, The Lightning, when David Kampf pulled the puck at the front of the net and Steven Lorentz redirected it after the Dostal at a tight angle for his seventh goal of the year. Dostal stopped 20 of the 23 strokes he faced.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
