Ducks 3, Maple Leafs 2, shootout.
It's two points but, even just listening to the game on the radio, I still feel confident in saying this is NOT how the Ducks wanted to start their road trip. They led 2-1 most of the way but gave up the game-tying goal with about a minute left in regulation.
Overtime went scoreless, then Curtis Joseph came off the bench to replace Vesa Toskala in the shootout (a gutsy early-season call by Toronto coach Ron Wilson). Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry made quick work of CuJo and the game, and the Ducks will somehow leave town with two points.
If you were expecting less offense at the outset, after seeing Ryan Getzlaf scratched from the lineup (reportedly because of dental issues), you were right. The Ducks hit an all-time franchise low by not taking a single shot in the third period, during which the Maple Leafs (not exactly the NHL's most prolific offensive team) outshot them 13-0.
George Parros scored his second goal of the season, which would have been Parros' team-leading second goal of the season - let that phrase sink in - were it not for Francois' Beauchemin's team-leading third goal of the season later in the first period. That was unexpected enough.
The Ducks killed off a 5-on-3 situation midway through the third period, but the law of averages says that if you get outshot 23-0 in a game/period, you're not going to break even. Sure enough, Nik Antropov scored with Vesa Toskala pulled for an extra attacker, and the clock struck midnight on the anemic Ducks offense.
Sans Getzlaf, your lines for the game:
Perry-Morrison-Kunitz
Selanne-Carter-Marchant
Moen-Pahlsson-R.Niedermayer
May-Sutherby-Parros
Also, Ken Klee has been waived after being a healthy scratch.the last three games.
And, Chris Pronger has updated his blog. It's chock-full of good trivia (who carpools together to practices?)
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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