Columbus 4, Ducks 3.
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."
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.
Leave a comment