After sweeping a four-game road trip for the first time in a decade, the Anaheim Ducks will open a five-game homestand on Wednesday night when they host the Arizona Coyotes.
The Ducks concluded their trip, which began with wins at Columbus, Boston and Philadelphia, with a dramatic 4-3 victory at Pittsburgh on Monday night.
Mason McTavish exited the penalty box after the first penalty of a 5-on-3 Pittsburgh power play expired, took a push pass from Adam Henrique in the neutral zone and then beat Tristan Jarry on a breakaway with 12.8 seconds remaining in the third period to win it.
Anaheim killed two 5-on-3 power plays in the contest, lost starting goalie John Gibson after one period to an upper-body injury and saw head coach Greg Cronin kicked out in the third period for arguing a goalie interference penalty that wiped away a Ducks score.
But Anaheim rallied to win it on McTavish’s short-handed goal.
“Obviously kind of a nail-biter,” McTavish said. “Rico (Henrique) kind of popped it out to me out of the box and just kind of got lucky. It’s nice to kind of get those bounces.”
It marked the first time since Dec. 17-23, 2013, that Anaheim won four consecutive road games.
“To go 4-0 on an Eastern swing is really tough to do,” McTavish said. “It’s a great achievement for our group and we’re kind of going to build on that.”
Lukas Dostal replaced Gibson for the final two periods and made 33 saves.
Arizona had a much easier time in its most recent game, blowing out the Chicago Blackhawks 8-1 Monday in Tempe, Ariz.
Connor Bedard scored the first goal just 28 seconds into the contest but it was all Coyotes after that. Arizona scored eight consecutive goals, including four over a 10-minute span in the second period.
Michael Carcone led the way with his first career hat trick and Jack McBain added two goals and two assists.
The lopsided win helped ease the pain of a 5-4 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Friday that saw Arizona blow a 4-1 lead and give up the game-winning goal with 1:59 left.
“I think we all kind of woke up the next morning knowing that that can’t happen,” Carcone said. “We can’t kind of collapse like that in the third. We’re a young team learning as we go here. We didn’t watch the video. We just worked hard and here we are. A great response and proud of the guys.”
McBain celebrated his 100th career NHL game with a four-point performance.
“Anytime I can help contribute offensively I think it’s pretty special,” McBain said. “I think it was a great win and the team is kind of moving in the right direction.”
The game with the Ducks starts a stretch that sees Arizona play three times in four days. They return home on Thursday to play Montreal and then come right back on Saturday afternoon to host Winnipeg.
“We have a busy week so we needed that kind of performance,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “There were a lot of positives for us to build on. We have three games in three-and-a-half days so we’re going to need everybody.”
–Field Level Media
