ANAHEIM, Calif. – November presents a tough schedule for the Anaheim Ducks, including a row of heavy hitters in the first week, but don’t tell these Ducks how hard this is supposed to be.
Ducks rookie Beckett Sennecke got back on the scoresheet, as he and Cutter Gauthier put together two-point nights, and Lukás Dostal was a stalwart with 32 saves in net, as the Ducks knocked off the Eastern contending New Jersey Devils, 4-1, at Honda Center on Sunday.
Anaheim has won three in a row for the first time this season and four of its last five games.
“I know we didn’t like our start in the first five minutes,” said Frank Vatrano, who also netted his first goal of the season, “but we get a quick goal there (from Sennecke). It’s nice to play with the lead and not behind the eight ball a little bit. So I like the way that we rolled shifts over. Weren’t extending our shifts. I think we played just overall good team game.”
The Ducks have only scored the first goal in four games this season, but they have scored the first two goals in each of the last three games against Florida, Detroit and New Jersey.
Anaheim (7-3-1, 15 points) next welcomes in Stanley Cup champion Florida on Tuesday, as the Ducks roll through a murderers row of a schedule at home against the two-time reigning Panthers, on the road at Western finalist Dallas and Pacific Division champion Vegas before coming back home to Presidents Trophy winner Winnipeg.
“We got a really tough week here, and we’re coming off those two tough games against teams gotten out to good starts (in Detroit and New Jersey),” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ve got them in favorable scheduling. Back to back games (from Los Angeles the night before), getting them in that setting, which is, you know, we’ll take that all day, but at the same time, we’re gonna have our hands full of what we’ve got coming up this week. We got four top teams in a row here. That’ll be the great test. One at a time.”
Beckett Sennecke Back on the Scoresheet
It was a blazing hot start to 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke’s career with goals in each of his first two NHL games and points in each of his first three. The rookie scored a goal in Nashville three games later, but as he settled into the not-always-serendipitous every day life of the NHL–gasp–a four-game point drought.
Sennecke hit the 10-game NHL milestone on Friday to kick in the first year of his three-year entry level contract, but was that start just an early flash for the 2024 No. 3 overall pick?
Sunday’s game delivered a declarative “no,” as Sennecke hit the back of the net in explosive fashion on a two-point night for the young Toronto native.
“I think he’s growing up right in front of our eyes here,” Joel Quenneville said. “I think offensively, the play he made on that goal shows that he’s capable of making high-end plays. At the same time, he has some plays that I think he’s starting to eliminate out of his game. Turnovers in tight areas or tough areas to make a play, but he has the puck a lot, which we like, and his play recognition is high end.”
Sennecke made an alert defensive play at one end of the ice to intercept a Devils feed, turn up ice and send Cutter Gauthier streaking into the neutral zone. Sennecke got his own head of speed, caught up to Gauthier and received the tap forward into the offensive zone.
Sennecke’s hands were quick enough to collect the puck and roof it for his fourth goal of the season before crashing into the end boards. He popped up healthy enough to skate back to the Ducks bench, while Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” blared over the Honda Center speakers. (Sennecke said with a hearty laugh that the song wasn’t his pick.)
Aside from the high-end offensive finish–which Quenneville said, “get out of the way and let him go”–that play starting with a defensive recognition is some of the small things the Ducks coaching staff is instilling in Sennecke early.
“I think as a young guy coming in that’s kind of the biggest thing,” Sennecke said. “You can’t be kind of a defensive liability out there and they want to be able to trust you, because that’s the point of the game is to not get scored on the most.”
Sennecke said after practice yesterday that adjusting to the speed of the NHL game and how fast decisions need to be made was his biggest adjustment so far. He’s learning how to use his body and physicality more on the offensive side of the puck.
Every game is a learning opportunity for the 19-year-old.
“I just kind of try and take it at one game at a time and just kind of focus on kind of two things that I can, like, I go into a game and I can focus on those,” Sennecke said yesterday. “Whether it’s keep my feet moving, just little stuff like that that the coaches kind of relay back to me, that they want me to kind of focus on for that individual game and just take it one at a time.”
Frank Vatrano Breaks Through Early Frustration
It has not been an easy run to start the season for veteran Frank Vatrano.
In a year when his new contract extension kicked in, Vatrano had just one point through 10 games–a touch assist on a power play goal in Boston over a week ago–and entering Sunday, he had been knocked down to the fourth line playing nearly five full minutes less on average than last season.
However, the Ducks had been winning, so the veteran kept his head down. In what was truly an 100% effort shift, Vatrano broke through on the Ducks’ second goal–his first of the season.
“It felt great. It felt good,” Vatrano said of his first of the season. “It’s a team sport. The team’s winning, so no matter what you’re going through, you got to be a good teammate, and no matter how many minutes you’re playing, you got to be there for the guys in this room and try to help as much out as possible.”
Whether it was Jackson LaCombe’s dynamic spin move to bring the puck down low, or Vatrano and Ross Johnston’s ferocious forecheck, or LaCombe’s diving effort to get the puck to Vatrano, it was a full grinding shift to get Vatrano’s first of the season in the net.
“Frankie’s a big piece of the team,” Quenneville said. “He’s one of the guys, you know, leadership group, he’s a big part of it. And snake bit a lot to start off the year. He’s one of those guys, he gets going there, the pucks start going in for him, so we’re happy for him. He’s scoring a big one for us tonight. I think that it can take away that added pressure when you keep looking through and searching for the next one, and it’s an important one, so he’ll be fine.”As Quenneville alluded to, Vatrano has historically been a streaky goal scorer. The 31-year-old has put in over 20 goals in each of his three seasons in Anaheim, including a career-high 37 two seasons ago.
Vatrano can score in bunches, but those bunches don’t come without the first one, or the next one.
“Goal scoring’s a funny thing,” Vatrano said. “You get one, you just roll with it into the next game. So it’s nice to get the first one out of the way, but, you know, just keep going forward to the next game.”
Seriously, this whole sequence.
From LaCombe’s dynamic spin to go low, to Vatrano and Johnston just hammering the end boards, to LaCombe’s diving assist and Vatrano’s quick finish. What a goal.#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/02xw9DCRqb
— Zach Cavanagh (@ZachCav) November 3, 2025
Despite the Ducks holding onto their first 3-0 advantage of the season and the offensive accolades of Sennecke, Gauthier and Vatrano, the first star of the game went to Lukas Dostal and the 25-year-old netminder’s 32 saves.
“He was unreal tonight,” Sennecke said.
New Jersey ended up winning the expected goals battle by a narrow margin, 4.18-3.99 according to MoneyPuck, but it was Dostal that kept it at a wider result. His 3.18 goals saved above expected leapt him into first in the NHL in the category at 10.4 GSAx in just nine starts.
“That’s why he’s our rock,” Vatrano said. “He’s made big saves for us, not just tonight, but you know, he always makes those saves. Some costly mistakes on our part, and he bailed us out. That’s why he’s wearing the gear.”
The Ducks defense is still giving up more chances than it would like to, but Dostal’s ability between the pipes also gives Anaheim the confidence to continue to push forward offensively.
“I thought after Dosty kept us in in the first 10 minutes,” Quenneville said. “He gave us a real chance.”