ANAHEIM \u2014 New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer and Ducks winger Beckett Sennecke could be squaring off in the Calder Trophy balloting at season\u2019s end, but first their teams clashed on Wednesday night at Honda Center.<\/p>\n
There, the Ducks produced five unanswered goals to split the season series with one of the Metropolitan Division\u2019s top teams, prevailing 5-1.<\/p>\n
Sennecke, 20, scored a goal and earned the primary assist on one of two tallies by Cutter Gauthier. Ryan Poehling and Frank Vatrano each lit the lamp, while Chris Kreider contributed two assists.<\/p>\n
The Isles, who beat the Ducks, 5-2, on Dec. 11, got a goal from captain Anders Lee. Schaefer, 18, had game highs in time on ice and shots on goal, but finished with a minus-2 rating.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna hear and see a lot of those two guys throughout their careers,\u201d Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Schaefer) is gonna be special, and, when I say special, maybe more than special. He\u2019s an amazing player with versatility. We had some containment on him on some shifts out there tonight that helped us,\u201d Quenneville added. \u201c\u2018Becks\u2019 has been dangerous each and every night. Each and every night he does some things where I say \u2018wow, that\u2019s a pretty amazing play he just made there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In net, it was a battle of backups. Ville Husso stopped a staggering 42 shots for the Ducks in his first action since Jan. 26, while former King \u201cBig Save Dave\u201d Rittich made 21 saves of varying importance.<\/p>\n
True to form, Isles coach Patrick Roy, regarded by many as the greatest goalie in NHL history, pulled Rittich with 8:34 to play, facing a three-goal deficit. Though New York defended its empty net successfully for more than four minutes, Vatrano\u2019s first goal since Dec. 7 and first point since Dec. 20 drove in the dagger with 4:11 on the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a great job [playing five-on-six]. I don\u2019t think there were any shots from the middle, really. Guys did a hell of a job and got that big fifth goal,\u201d said Husso, who admitted he was eyeing a goalie goal while up three.<\/p>\n
After weathering a second-period storm, the Ducks made it 4-1 just 2:11 into the third.<\/p>\n
Playing in his first game since Dec. 27 (broken shoulder), Vatrano barreled in on the forecheck, separating Schaefer from the puck. It came to Ryan Strome, who last played on Jan. 26, and he sent it to Poehling in front for a forehand-to-backhand effort that banked in off Rittich\u2019s skate. Poehling has seven goals in his first season as a Duck.<\/p>\n
Husso and company kept the second period scoreless despite a 13-4 shot disadvantage and three New York power plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had lots of shots, obviously. (Husso) played great, but we had to find his weak spots, too,\u201d Schaefer said.<\/p>\n
Before that, the visitors struck first but the hosts responded with three consecutive goals in their opening salvo.<\/p>\n
Sennecke moved into a tie with Schaefer for most goals by a rookie with his 20th of the campaign as 80 seconds remained. He and Mason McTavish battled at the net front before Ian Moore shot directly for Rittich\u2019s right pad. The big Czech kicked a mouth-watering rebound right to Sennecke, who leads all rookies in points with 51.<\/p>\n
The Ducks now have three 50-point scorers with Leo Carlsson, Sennecke and Gauthier.<\/p>\n
With 3:55 left, Gauthier put himself on natural hat trick watch when he roared off the rush. Kreider found a puck that squirted into the neutral zone, making a between-the-legs drop pass that sprung Carlsson. Scott Mayfield\u2019s overeagerness left Schaefer alone with Carlsson and Gauthier, and Carlsson waited out his pass for a Gauthier one-timer until the last instant.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Gauthier) has an amazing shot and he\u2019s gonna score almost every time he gets those opportunities. My job is more to have a lot of speed in the middle and feed him,\u201d Carlsson said.<\/p>\n
Gauthier drew the Ducks even at 12:56 with a man-advantage marker after Sennecke\u2019s pass from below the goal line found him in the left circle. Gauthier has 31 goals to lead the team and eight of those have come in his past seven appearances. He also became the first player in franchise history, per team PR, to score five consecutive goals for the team, doing so across three games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing with my offense is getting pucks to the net and getting opportunities, whether they\u2019re going in or, if they\u2019re not, hopefully I can create some offense for my linemates,\u201d Gauthier said. \u201cThey\u2019ve recently been going in, which is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just under five minutes into the match, the Ducks gave up the game\u2019s first goal for the fifth consecutive contest, a power-play tally on which Lee slammed home Tony DeAngelo\u2019s rebound.<\/p>\n
The Ducks next host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night, just hours after the NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2014 New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer and Ducks winger Beckett Sennecke could be squaring off in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,404,127],"class_list":["post-205314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}