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<\/p>\nWINNIPEG \u2014 Don\u2019t get the Anaheim Ducks wrong. All the comebacks they\u2019ve had, all their thrill-a-minute action is intoxicating. Perhaps a little too much at times.<\/p>\n
During a nine-game homestand that contained everything that has made the Ducks one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch, Chris Kreider mused about their \u201ckind of chaotic, kind of crazy\u201d nature.<\/p>\n
Just how does the feeling that you\u2019re never out of a game manifest within a team?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put your finger on, but at the end of the day, I just think it\u2019s a group that gets excited to be in those positions where they can go north, generate offense,\u201d Kreider said. \u201cJust a lot of young talent in the room. A lot of guys have game-breaking skill. (They) do stuff that, honestly, I\u2019ve never seen before. At any point, those guys can break out and can score goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it might just be a result of that. A group that really wants to win hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ducks\u2019 15 wins in their last 19 contests prove they do indeed love that feeling at the end of games. But regularly spotting opponents a couple of goals isn\u2019t sustainable, especially when there is now a Pacific Division to be won and a playoff run to start dreaming about. Besides, their listless loss at home Sunday to the St. Louis Blues shows that sometimes the energy just isn\u2019t there to mount a comeback.<\/p>\n
It made Tuesday\u2019s 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets to begin a four-game Canadian trip feel like much more than a simple bounce-back performance. The Ducks played the kind of tight, detailed game that can win in the playoffs, and that is something this team hasn\u2019t shown often in this otherwise bubbly season.<\/p>\n
The Jets are far from last season\u2019s Presidents\u2019 Trophy outfit. They\u2019re unlikely to make the playoffs, but they aren\u2019t devoid of talent. But Tuesday night it was Anaheim, which hasn\u2019t minded engaging in trade-chance track meets, putting on a skating and defending clinic.<\/p>\n
Through 60 minutes that left a Canada Life Centre crowd ornery, the Ducks kept the home team to two shots on goal in the first period, seven shots after two and 13 shots for the game. The excitement paled in comparison to many of Anaheim\u2019s 35 other victories. And that was just fine with the Ducks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other ones are a bit stressful on everyone,\u201d said center Ryan Poehling, crediting his team\u2019s depth for pressuring and wearing down the Jets. \u201cWe just played a complete game. Didn\u2019t give them much defensively, but still created just as much offensively. Just playing behind them. It\u2019s definitely the standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poehling\u2019s intended deflection of Alex Killorn\u2019s long-distance slapper came in between Tim Washe\u2019s rebound goal and Killorn\u2019s own wrister past Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck in a three-goal outburst over a 1:44 span of the second period. That was all the Ducks needed because of how they played, a direct reversal of their disappointing loss to the Blues.<\/p>\n
Case in point: On Killorn\u2019s goal, it was Poehling\u2019s hustle that forced a Jets turnover at the Winnipeg blue line and created the scoring chance. The Ducks won races and puck battles all night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many things that happen in a game, and there\u2019s only so much you can control,\u201d Killorn said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t happy with last game. We all thought as a group we should have a better start. And I think that has been one of our most complete games.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at three periods. A lot of games we\u2019ve been down, and we\u2019ve had to come back. We were down (a goal) here, but for the majority of the game we were up, and we kind of played the right way. It was a great game for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Ducks coach Joel Quenneville put it, \u201cI liked how we learned a good lesson.\u201d His team won\u2019t be this stingy every night. But what the effort did was provide a template to follow. That they can be a team that defends diligently and does not solely rely on its skill or capacity to outscore opponents.<\/p>\n
After all, the Ducks came into Tuesday night with a minus-10 goal differential as the leader in the Pacific. It\u2019s still negative, but they head to Toronto with a three-point edge over the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight reminds me how you\u2019re going to have to play to be successful if you want to win,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cTo get in the playoffs and to win in the playoffs. That\u2019s something we can look back to.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Ducks forward Tim Washe is congratulated by his teammates after his goal. (Terrence Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Jackson LaCombe\u2019s empty-net goal salted away one of Anaheim\u2019s finest performances. The Jets were throttled. A Bronx cheer broke out when Winnipeg managed to put three shots on net midway through the third. Then came a \u201cshoot the puck\u201d chant from the Jets faithful. One fed-up fan took it a step further and yelled, \u201cShoot the f\u2014king puck!\u201d<\/p>\n
It had to be music to Quenneville\u2019s ears. And keeping the Jets\u2019 prolific trio of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi without a single shot on goal had to be satisfying.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially when you look at they have some really talented players that were there that have been scoring a lot,\u201d Killorn said. \u201cI think we did a good job keeping those guys off the scoreboard. We didn\u2019t make any stupid turnovers. They\u2019re going to get chances. It\u2019s going to happen. But I thought we eliminated them as much as we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another thing the Ducks found that can be called upon as messaging in their push for a surprising, even shocking division title: They can win games without their young offensive stars leading the way. Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke didn\u2019t have a point against Winnipeg. On this night, it was the role players who grabbed the headlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important coming down the stretch where these games, they\u2019re so mangled up and you got to be able to roll four lines and kind of give everyone that energy,\u201d Poehling said. \u201cSome nights, they\u2019re not going to be there for us. I thought they played great tonight, just didn\u2019t get on the scoresheet. But you know it\u2019s nice to have other guys step in and do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
No late heroics were necessary. No highlight-reel plays that lit up social media. No wild swings in momentum. Just a dominant, workmanlike victory. The Ducks found a new way to win Tuesday \u2014 the kind that can make them a threat in the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was very businesslike going into today\u2019s game,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the way we\u2019d like it to be going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 Don\u2019t get the Anaheim Ducks wrong. All the comebacks they\u2019ve had, all their thrill-a-minute action is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164],"class_list":["post-215322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215322","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=215322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}