Making a run for their first playoff berth since 2018, the Anaheim Ducks put a five-game home winning streak on the line Saturday night when they host the Chicago Blackhawks.
Anaheim, which is 8-2-1 over its last 11 games, is one of five teams within six points of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Ducks (59 points) come in off a key 5-2 victory Thursday over Vancouver, which holds the final wild-card spot with 65 points. Calgary (64), Utah (63) and St. Louis (62) are also in the running.
Anaheim trailed 2-0 after one period against the Canucks, but scored five straight goals over the final 40 minutes to score their sixth multi-goal comeback win of the season. Only Seattle (seven) has more.
“Everyone wants to be playing important games at this time of year,” said forward Frank Vatrano, who started the comeback with a goal. “And obviously the past few years, it sucks when you’re out of the playoffs after the All-Star break.
“It’s nice for the younger guys to kind of get a taste of what it’s like in crunch time and how every point matters and how every play matters, kind of learning how to play the right way. We’re doing that night-in and night-out.”
Ryan Strome and Troy Terry each had a goal and two assists for Anaheim, which finished February with a 5-1-1 mark.
“I think the guys in here were really excited,” Strome said after the comeback win. “It was a big game for us. I think there’s some guys in here who haven’t played a game of this magnitude at this time of year in a couple of years. When you have a four-point division game and there’s 25 games left and you’ve got some hope still, I think it’s exciting for us.”
Chicago limps in just two points ahead of San Jose in the battle not to have the worst record in the league. The Blackhawks have lost five in a row (0-4-1) and come in off a wild 7-5 loss Thursday at Pacific Division-leading Vegas.
Chicago fell behind 5-1 in the first period against the Golden Knights, who tied a team record for most goals in a period. But the Blackhawks crawled back to within 6-5 on back-to-back third-period goals by Ilya Mikheyev and Philipp Kurashev before Ivan Barbashev sealed the win for Vegas with a goal with 4:15 to go.
“It’s not easy coming back from a 5-1 deficit,” said rookie center Frank Nazar, who had two assists. “Just to be in that game shows the resiliency that we have.”
“The first period, the frustrating part, is that it was self-induced,” said defenseman Connor Murphy, who finished with three assists. “It felt like we were the ones letting them get by us on rushes and we were the ones careless with our breakouts. All we did was start playing. We didn’t do anything too magical to get our goals.”
Connor Bedard failed to score a point for the Blackhawks for the fourth straight game, a career high. Chicago, which has lost six in a row (0-5-1) on the road, owns the worst away mark in the league at 6-20-4.
–Field Level Media
