{"id":245501,"date":"2026-03-31T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/245501\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:28:08","slug":"ducks-head-to-san-jose-looking-to-clamp-down-on-division-lead-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/245501\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks head to San Jose looking to clamp down on division lead \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM \u2013\u2013 The Ducks darted up north for a quick visit to the San Jose Sharks, after the Maple Leafs already took a bite out of them with a third-period rally Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Ducks still held a four-point edge over the rest of the Pacific Division, they had a sour taste in their mouths after blowing a second two-goal lead in a loss to lottery-bound Toronto in the span of 18 days<\/a>. The second defeat came after failing to capitalize on a chance to all but clinch the division crown in a four-point game against second-place Edmonton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running out of real estate to both collect as many points as we can and also feel good about how we\u2019re playing [ahead of the playoffs],\u201d said defenseman John Carlson, who won a Stanley Cup with Washington and has eight points during his four-game scoring surge.<\/p>\n

At the opposite end of the experiential spectrum sat rookie winger Beckett Sennecke, who is likely to place second behind New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer in the Calder Trophy voting.<\/p>\n

Sennecke\u2019s bravado has benefitted the Ducks plenty this year, particularly off the rush where he has made plays that were equal parts daring and effective at times. They included an OT winner and a stunning primary assist on another one by Olen Zellweger.<\/p>\n

Yet of late, he has been something of a liability, with a between-the-legs dangle becoming a game-winning goal for the Philadelphia Flyers and a casual backhand pass through two defenders at the offensive blue line transforming into a pivotal tally for Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe give him some freedom to do a lot of things [that] offensively you don\u2019t want to take away from him,\u201d coach Joel Quenneville said. \u201cBut that\u2019s sometimes where the trouble starts, so I think we\u2019ve got to find that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposing Sennecke and pals Wednesday will be Sharks wunderkind Macklin Celebrini. He won\u2019t turn 20 until June but is already a Hart Trophy contender. He has put together just the third 100-point campaign in San Jose franchise history.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already tied Erik Karlsson for the second-most points in a single season by a Shark with 101, and he\u2019s on pace to narrowly break Joe Thornton\u2019s one-year record of 114 points. Celebrini has been involved in more than 46% of the Sharks\u2019 goals this season and is a point shy of producing double the output of their next most prolific scorer, Will Smith.<\/p>\n

Ducks at San Jose<\/p>\n

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday<\/p>\n

Where: SAP Center, San Jose<\/p>\n

TV: TNT, truTV, HBO Max<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2013\u2013 The Ducks darted up north for a quick visit to the San Jose Sharks, after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,404,127],"class_list":["post-245501","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\/245501","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=245501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}