Ducks Can't Muster a Comeback This Time, Lose to Sens 3-0

Final Score: Ducks 0, Senators 3

First Period:

Only two and a half minutes into the game Erik Karlsson picked up a Ducks turnover and showed just what makes him so special, dragging the puck around the other Karlsson (Wild Bill back in his first game since being called up earlier this week) and fired a perfect wrist shot to the top corner, but John Gibson just got enough to deflect it out of play.

Just after that the Ducks went on the first power play of the game when Alex Chaisson dumped the puck over the glass.  Once they got set up the PP was actually pretty good, Cam Fowler hit a post and they did a really good job of recovering pucks, but no dice.

The Ducks took a penalty of their own about a minute after the kill when Josh Manson caught Mika Zibanejad with a high stick.  It was pretty much a perfect penalty kill from the Ducks, never allowing the Sens to get set up for more than like 15 seconds in the zone.

Just before the midpoint of the period, newest Duck Jiri Sekac put in a really nice shift with Jakob Silfverberg and Ryan Kesler, recovering pucks and eventually finding Kesler with all day in front of Sens goalie Andrew Hammond.  Unfortunately Hammond stacked the pads, out waited Kesler and had the puck shot directly into his waiting glove hand.  And it was pretty much all down hill from there for Anaheim.

About a minute after Kesler's golden opportunity, Eric Gryba unleashed a slap shot from the point through a ton of traffic that deflected off of Eric Condra to open the scoring.  1-0 Sens.

The Ducks took two more penalties, both for tripping, before the end of 20, first Kyle Palmieri then Ryan Kesler. On the first one, Manson nearly banked a puck in behind Gibson and even though it was better than the first opportunity for Ottawa, it was otherwise a pretty solid kill.  The Kesler penalty occurred with only nine seconds left in the period and carried over into the second.

Bit of a scary moment when linesman Steve Miller was tagged in the face by the butt end of David Legwand's stick during a faceoff.  He was tended to for several minutes before coming off the ice and not returning to the game until the start of the third period.

At five on five, the rest of the period was marked by some sloppy puck handling and over passing, especially by Ryan Getzlaf.

Second Period:

The start of the second was all Sens, partially thanks to a much better performance from their PP that carried over.  The Ducks were able to kill the penalty, but about a minute and a half later Mike Hoffman threw a puck on net from a sharp angle, Gibson kicked out a rebound into the crease and Zibanejad was right there to tap it home immediately. 2-0 Sens.

This recap is about to get even more boring than it already was.  For about the next five minutes the Sens continued to control the game offensively, mostly thanks to a penalty against Sekac (again for tripping) that the Ducks killed, but from there Ottawa shut it down defensively and never really let the Ducks up.

The Ducks really had nothing going whatsoever for the first half of the second period, but at the midway point of the game score effects started to creep in and they were able to get a semi-respectable eight shots on goal out of the period, but still nothing to write home about.

Third Period:

I say that the score effects started to creep into the game at the end of the second, because they were not evident to start the third.  The Ducks could only put two shots on net in the first 12 minutes of the period.

Really the only action of note in the period was a fight between Francois Beauchemin and (almost Bobby Ryan) Mark Borowiecki.  Beauch went on a bit of a wrecking ball shift in the middle of the period, crushing Hoffman then taking a little run at Bobby.  His former teammate didn't take to kindly, gave a little love tap back with the stick and when Beauch had some words about that Borowiecki jumped in to champion Bobby's case.

Bobby had a breakaway a few minutes later, but as he deked to the forehand he lost the puck and ate it into the end boards.  In fairness if he could have pulled that move off, he looked to have Gibson beat.

The Ducks put a little push together in the final few minutes but it was Kyle Turris scoring into the empty net from inside the defensive zone to seal the victory and season sweep for Ottawa.

**********

The Good: Without a doubt the best thing about this game for the Ducks was the penalty kill, however the Sens are only the 23rd best PP in the league.  The first period was not actually bad from the Ducks, they had a few chances and only gave up the one goal through a TON of traffic, but they couldn't capitalize on playing decently to start the game.

The Bad: Ottawa played the proverbial "perfect road game" once they got the lead, and especially the two goal lead they locked it down and never gave the Ducks a chance to get back into it.

The Ugly: For the fifth time in six games, the Ducks fell behind by (at least) two goals before the end of the second period.  They found a way to pull two of those out of the fire, but that's no way to win a hockey game.

**********

3^rd Icehole: Andrew Hammond - give him credit for his first NHL shutout, bu he wasn't tested all that much.  Honestly, based on his performance in the first, when the Ducks were at least decent, I don't think it would have been a shutout if he had been tested more, but he stopped everything he saw so, cheers.

2^nd Icehole: Erik Karlsson - Logged 26:38 of ice time, which is actually below his average (26:58), effortlessly.  He had a couple nifty plays, but there was no trace of the risk/reward type of play that can occasionally get him in trouble.  Then again, there was no reason for him to risk anything as the Sens were perfectly happy to defend their two goal lead for half the game.

1^st Icehole: Mika Zibanejad - scored the only remotely skilled goal of the game, but throughout showed some really slick moves and great vision for passing.

Next Game: The Red Hot Los Angeles Kings at home Friday, 7pm PT