Tonight, the Ducks and Avalanche will play the same players in a new location as Anaheim travels to Ball Arena to begin a two-game road trip and play Colorado again.
Killorn remarked, “I think we’ve played some good hockey lately.” “We seem to fight to get back into games after making these mistakes where we give up breakaways and 2-on-1s early on. Extremely resilient group. We should just tighten things up, in my opinion, so we can play with some leads and not always play it that way.”
“The work and execution on both sides of the puck was there for the majority of the game,” said Adam Henrique. “To effectively counter them, you must control the puck…We were able to attack and forecheck because we controlled the puck. For us, that was crucial.”
The Ducks hope to build on their 4-3 shootout victory over the same Avs on Saturday when they visit the Mile High City. That evening, Anaheim was led by Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn, who both scored goals in the second period to help the team overcome a two-goal deficit and end an eight-game losing streak.
Killorn remarked, “I think we’ve played some good hockey lately.” “We seem to fight to get back into games after making these mistakes where we give up breakaways and 2-on-1s early on. Extremely resilient group. We should just tighten things up, in my opinion, so we can play with some leads and not always play it that way.”
“The work and execution on both sides of the puck was there for the majority of the game,” said Adam Henrique. “To effectively counter them, you must control the puck…We were able to attack and forecheck because we controlled the puck. For us, that was crucial.”
With an incredible backhand-to-forehand tuck around goalie Ivan Prosvetov’s outstretched leg, Carlsson capping the overtime drama.
“I’m not sure if it was something unique or not,” the consistently modest Carlsson remarked. “I kind of lost the puck there, so I was neervous for a tenth of a second and after that I knew I had him, so it was a good shot.”
Head coach Greg Cronin said of the player, “He was awesome the whole game.” “Obviously, we needed that goal—it was an incredible one that he scored. You could sense a little tension building on the bench toward the end of the game—it had been eight straight losses. We had some excellent opportunities and I felt like we really bounced back in overtime.”
With the victory, Anaheim’s record in games decided by forfeit was improved to 10-14-0 and 4-0-0.
“We competed hard and got into more of an attacking mentality,” Cronin stated. “Earlier, we were playing hockey in that style. We must expand on that.”
For the third time in as many games, Anaheim will take on Colorado tonight in an attempt to win the season series with a victory at home.
“You’re more familiar with their tendencies and you can coach specifically to those things,” said Cronin. Playing against a new opponent each game requires you to concentrate more on your teamwork. Although you can make some changes that will show up in the game, that remains your main platform in this one.”
After losing three of their three road games—against Arizona, Anaheim, and Los Angeles over a four-day span—Colorado returns home tonight.
Coach Jared Bednar of Colorado stated, “I thought it was a highly competitive hockey game,” following the game on Saturday at Honda Center. “At first, I thought we owned all of the game, but then I thought they owned some of it too. It seemed to be played very evenly, and I expect that to show in the shots and scoring opportunities. We were a little too opportunistic in the first period, but we did some nice things on the breakouts to create some rush opportunities, and our defense was heavily involved. I thought they were really competitive on pucks down low in our zone in the first period.”
The following night, the Avs would lead the Kings 1-0 early in the first quarter, but four goals in a row for LA would prove to be too much to overcome in the second half of a back-to-back.
“Until the last ten minutes of the game, we largely followed our game plan,” Colorado forward Logan O’Connor said to Dan Greenspan of NHL.com. “Our final details were careless, and skilled teams will always find a way to win, which is exactly what happened to us.”
With a one-point advantage over Dallas, Colorado (15-7-2, 32 points) is the top team in the Central Division.