{"id":559869,"date":"2026-03-25T14:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/559869\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:13:07","slug":"ducks-forward-mctavish-bouncing-back-from-healthy-scratch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/559869\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks forward McTavish bouncing back from healthy scratch"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2014 Mason McTavish<\/a> is quick to admit he\u2019s been struggling.<\/p>\n

So when the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> forward snapped his scoring skid on Tuesday, a sense of relief followed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a while, so it\u2019s nice to get one,\u201d he said of the tally that helped the Ducks to a 5-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>. \u201cIt was a great feeling, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season hasn\u2019t been smooth for McTavish. <\/p>\n

While the 23-year-old Canadian has 14 goals and 20 assists across 64 games, the total is below the 52 points he amassed in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

Heading into Tuesday\u2019s matchup, he hasn\u2019t scored since Jan. 19 \u2014 a span of 14 games. <\/p>\n

He was also healthy scratched twice last week for the first time in his career. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty hard,\u201d McTavish admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s been a tough couple weeks, stretch of games for me, so it\u2019s nice to get that (goal) for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The score was level at 3-3 early in the third period when McTavish carried the puck up the ice into Canucks\u2019 territory. He dished off to defenceman Jackson LaCombe<\/a>, who returned the favour with a drop pass inside the faceoff circle. McTavish took a couple of strides and blasted off a shot from the faceoff dot, sailing it over the glove of Vancouver netminder Kevin Lankinen<\/a> to give his side a 4-3 advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great shot, a great shot, and I thought (McTavish) had a good game overall,\u201d Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville<\/a> said of the young forward\u2019s play. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that line was effective in a lot of ways. I thought it last game as well, and productive. I thought he had the puck on his stick a lot more and made some plays, and obviously that was a great play off the rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Troy Terry<\/a> added an empty-net strike with five seconds left on the game clock, but McTavish\u2019s goal stood as the game winner. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously you want to do everything you can to help the team win and, yeah, you\u2019ll take a goal whenever you can,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I mean, yeah, I guess it was a big goal, and it\u2019s the game winner, so definitely feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the win, the Ducks (40-27-4) remain atop the Pacific Division with a five-point cushion on the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

CARLSSON\u2019S CHEMISTRY<\/p>\n

Anaheim got three assists from John Carlson<\/a>, marking the veteran defenceman\u2019s biggest offensive contribution since he joined the Ducks ahead of the NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old blue liner was dealing with a lower-body injury when he was acquired from the Washington Capitals<\/a> on March 6 in exchange for a first-round pick in the 2026 draft and a second-round selection in 2027. <\/p>\n

Tuesday marked his fifth game for the Ducks, and he now has four helpers with his new team. <\/p>\n

Carlsson said he\u2019s starting to settle in. <\/p>\n

\u201cGetting used to some things, getting used to some players, little things like that,\u201d Carlsson said. \u201dBut otherwise, it\u2019s a great group of guys that have welcomed me. I feel comfortable and confident in here, and it\u2019s a fun team.\u201d<\/p>\n

PETTERSSON\u2019S POINTS<\/p>\n

Star centre Elias Pettersson<\/a> contributed a pair of assists for the Canucks (21-41-8), including the 300th assist and the 500th regular-season point of his NHL career. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool,\u201d he said of the milestones. \u201cCool numbers to hit. Very honoured.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 Mason McTavish is quick to admit he\u2019s been struggling. So when the Anaheim Ducks forward snapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-559869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}