MONTREAL — Called up from AHL affiliate San Diego Gulls only five days ago, Lukas Dostal helped the Anaheim Ducks grab their second regulation win of the season.
Dostal made 23 saves as the Ducks snapped their three-game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday at the Bell Centre, a building he particularly appreciated.
“I had pure joy before the game,” Dostal said. “I was nervous and the guys were saying how awesome it is to play here so I was just wondering about the atmosphere, right? And, I can tell. It was awesome.”
“He was like a kid in a candy store,” said Ducks coach Dallas Eakins. “This is a very special building, obviously. And when I went after the game, just to talk to him for a couple minutes alone, that's all he talked about was the building, the atmosphere, how much fun it was and it kind of reminds you that this is a game and it's supposed to be fun.”
In honour of his first NHL win of the season, and second of his career, Ryan Strome awarded Dostal the player of the game jacket — an old-school Mighty Ducks coloured jacket, which Dostal joked he’d wear out in Montreal’s winter conditions.
John Klingberg scored two goals for Anaheim (8-20-3), while Troy Terry added another. Adam Henrique and Frank Vatrano both scored empty netters.
Trevor Zegras and Mason McTavish each had two assists.
Cole Caufield replied with two third-period goals, but the Canadiens (14-14-2) concluded their back-to-back set with two losses. Jake Allen stopped 27 shots.
“It’s such a hard league," said Habs coach Martin St. Louis. "You rewind 24 hours, minus two periods, you feel really good about where we are after the first period in Ottawa. Now, it’s back-to-back losses and a poor performance tonight.”
Coming off a 7-0 loss to Toronto on Tuesday and a 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Monday, the Ducks entered Thursday's game without a goal to account for in their last eight periods of play.
The visitors rectified the situation with two quick goals late in the first period.
Terry broke the ice on the power play when he received a pass from Zegras in front of the net and tapped in his 12th of the season 17:28 into the frame.
Zegras then freed himself from Kaiden Guhle and set up Klingberg for a goal from the high slot, just 28 seconds later.
“We've had good first periods. I thought our first period versus Toronto, obviously they scored a couple, but I thought it was good,” Zegras said.
“We tried to carry that over. Just play behind them and go get it. Fore-check and make it tough on them to break out of their end, that's usually a good recipe for getting some pucks at the net.”
After the opening frame, the Ducks had already blocked seven shots. By game's end, Anaheim blocked a total of 16. For Eakins, it was imperative to stand in shooting lanes and help out their netminder.
“When players are blocking shots like that, especially after we spoke about it before the game, I think it shows the kid that 'Hey, you know what, these guys are battling for me. They're gonna fight for me tonight,'" he said. "And that's the one thing that I have been really proud of the group.”
“It’s not gonna be a perfect hockey game, they're gonna have their chances as well,” added Klingberg. “Obviously, (Dostal) wants to save every puck but it's not gonna be easy for him too so if you find ways to block shots it's a huge part of hockey nowadays.”
Allen saved his team from a three-goal deficit in the second period when Caufield coughed up the puck to Zegras. The winger found Henrique alone in the slot but Allen denied his point-blank shot.
After three unsuccessful power plays, the Habs finally got on the board with a man advantage 3:11 into the final frame. Kirby Dach found Caufield at the left faceoff circle, and he fired a one-timer to cut Anaheim's lead in half.
Caufield then tied the game when he wrapped a loose puck around Dostal’s net at 6:37 of the period.
“I just think we could’ve found our game a little bit,” Caufield said. “We were playing with a lot more fight down two, nothing to lose really, and we battled back so you can look at that as a positive but we just came up short.”
Klingberg restored the Ducks’ lead at 10:55 of the third with a slap shot from the point that beat Allen over his blocker.
The Canadiens called a timeout with 1:39 left in regulation and pulled Allen but Henrique made it a two-goal game 11 seconds later.
Vatrano added a second empty netter to ice the contest with nine seconds on the clock.
TERRY TEARING MONTREAL
The Ducks might not play the Canadiens often, but Troy Terry has had a knack for scoring against the Canadiens. In five games, Terry has amassed eight points (four goals, four assists) against the Habs.
UP NEXT
The Canadiens will welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
The Ducks will head to Edmonton to close out a four-game Canadian road trip against the Oilers on Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2022.
Tristan D'Amours, The Canadian Press
