Anaheim Ducks, who did a run for his first playoffs since 2018, put a winning line on five games on the line Saturday night when they host the Chicago Blackhawks.
Anaheim, who is 8-2-1 in the last 11 matches, is one of five teams within six points from the last Wild-Card place in the Western Conference. The ducks (59 points) come in outside a key 5-2 victory Thursday over Vancouver, which has the last joke card with 65 points. Calgary (64), Utah (63) and St. Louis (62) is also on the way.
Anaheim hit 2-0 after a period against Canucks, but scored five straight goals in the last 40 minutes to make their sixth multi-goal comeback victory this season. Only Seattle (seven) has more.
“Everyone wants to play important games at this time of year,” said forward Frank Vatrano, who started the comeback with a goal. “And obviously in recent years it sucks when you are out in the playoffs after the all-star break.
“It is nice for the younger guys to get a taste of what it is like in the crunch time and how each point is important and how each game is important, kind of learning to play properly. We make that night out and the night out.”
Ryan Strome and Troy Terry each had a goal and two assists for Anaheim, who ended February with a 5-1-1 mark.
“I think the guys here were really happy,” Strome said after the comeback victory. “It was a big game for us. I think there are some guys here who haven’t played a game of this size at this time of year in a couple of years. When you have a four-point division game and there are 25 games left and you have some hope, I think it is exciting for us.”
Chicago glue in just two points ahead of San Jose in the battle not to have the worst record in the league. The Blackhawks have dropped five in a row (0-4-1) and comes in outside a wild 7-5 loss on Thursday at Pacific Division-leading Vegas.
Chicago fell behind 5-1 during the first period against Golden Knights, which tied a layer record for most goals for a period. But the Blackhawks crawled back to within 6-5 on back-to-back third period’s goal by Ilya Mikheyev and Philipp Kurashev before Ivan Barbashev sealed Vegas victory with a goal with 4:15 to go.
“It’s not easy to get back from a 5-1 deficit,” said the Rookie Center Frank Nazar, who had two assists. “Just to be in that game shows the elasticity we have.”
“The first period, the frustrating part, is that it was self -induced,” said defender Connor Murphy, who finished with three assists. “It felt like we were the ones who let them get of us on rushes and we were the sloppy with our outbursts. All we did was to start playing. We did nothing too magical to get our goals.”
Connor Bedard failed to get a point for the Blackhawks for the fourth straight game, a career high. Chicago, who has lost sex in a row (0-5-1) on the road, owns the worst away brand in the league at 6-20-4.
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