When is 50 shots not enough?
Apparently Friday, when Columbus goaltender Steve Mason stymied the Ducks’ offensive onslaught in a 4-3 Blue Jackets win — a game that featured more near-misses than a pistol in the hand of a James Bond villain.
The Ducks saved their best for a third period in which they outshot Columbus 25-3 — reminiscent of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss in Minnesota that saw the Ducks outshoot the Wild 16-2 in the third. Like Niklas Backstrom, Mason was living large in the final period, allowing only a Corey Perry goal at 7:22 to bring the Ducks within 4-3.
Bobby Ryan — on his first career short-handed goal — and Saku Koivu also scored for the Ducks, who have now lost four straight on the heels of a six-game winning streak. Jonas Hiller stopped 25 shots, allowing goals to Rick Nash, Chris Clark, Jakub Voracek and Steve Commodore.
More details in tomorrow’s editions. Here are a few more notes:
- Teemu Selanne missed the final 11-plus minutes of the game. Head coach Randy Carlyle told reporters that Selanne had a groin injury.
- Sheldon Brookbank got the nod over Andreas Lilja in the lineup for the second straight game and made his biggest contribution in a second-period fight that ended with him on top of Derek Dorsett. He and defense partner Luca Sbisa both finished minus-2.
- Nick Bonino (9:39) and Kyle Palmieri (6:53) saw their ice time drop again, while Bobby Ryan (23:15) and Corey Perry (23:16) were the workhorses among the forwards. Cam Fowler logged a season-high 26:37.
- The 50 shots on goal were two off the franchise record, set in 1997 against the Buffalo Sabres.
- Ryan Getzlaf, on his third-period miss of a wide-open net: “When it rains, it pours, anyone will tell you that.
When you’re scoring, those things go in all the time and when you’re
not, it doesn’t. It’s just a situation where we’ve got to keep after it
and keep shooting pucks and they’ll go in.”
