ANAHEIM — It looked as though a new month would bring more of the same defensive doldrums for the Ducks, but this time they were on the right side of a rally.
They toppled the Ottawa Senators, 6-3, after trailing 3-0 at Honda Center on Sunday evening.
They’d blown leads in their previous two home games, both losses, but circled the wagons smashingly on Sunday.
This was just their second win in the past nine games, and the boo birds were out after they stumbled out of the starting blocks. Yet they managed to tilt the ice in their favor, closing the game with a level of confidence not seen since their Oct. 9 victory in Winnipeg, all behind four power-play goals.
Cutter Gauthier turned in his second career hat trick and now has five goals in his past two games after not scoring between Oct. 4 and Oct. 30. Rookie Judd Caulfield doubled his career goal total with two tallies and added an assist. Roger McQueen found the back of the net and Tristan Luneau had two assists. Leo Carlsson racked up three assists. His 17 helpers are the third most in the NHL, and his four-game multi-point streak puts him in the company of Teemu Selänne, Paul Kariya and Ryan Getzlaf. Laurent Brossoit made 20 saves, resiliently earning a win in his Ducks debut after signing over the summer and being recalled from the minors on Saturday.
Claude Giroux scored a goal and assisted on one by Michael Amadio after Phillip Tomasino opened the scoring. Jonas Johansson struggled after the first period, halting 27 pucks in total.
McQueen’s second career goal and first ever on the power play cushioned the Ducks’ lead when his shot from the left faceoff dot beat Johansson between the wickets.
Gauthier broke the tie and then extended the Ducks’ first lead of the evening with man-advantage markers separated by 36 seconds, at 1:50 and 2:26.
Both goals came from down low on the right side. Mikael Granlund found Carlsson with one seam pass before Carlsson hit Gauthier with another, with his one-timer completing his second career triple on Día de los Muertos night.
Gauthier had beaten a napping Johansson, who lost sight of the puck altogether before Gauthier’s strike parallel to the goal line.
The stage was set for the final frame by 40 minutes that were a tale of two periods, as the Ducks trailed 3-0 after one but pulled even through two.
They did an about-face, dominating the second period until they hit a spate of penalty trouble. Even then, Brossoit made a sterling stop on Jake Sanderson during a two-man disadvantage, and the Ducks killed consecutive penalties before converting on the power play right before intermission to knot the score.
Their power play seemed disjointed and ineffectual, but with three seconds remaining in Tim Stützle’s minor, Luneau changed his shooting angle to open a lane that allowed him to put the puck right on Caulfield’s stick for a tip-in equalizer.
They had roared back with goals from Gauthier and Caulfield less than two minutes apart, at the 1:35 and 3:33 marks.
A strong effort below the goal line from Carlsson and a pass high to Noah Warren generated a rebound, which Caulfield poked at persistently to breathe life into the Ducks.
Gauthier celebrated after Shane Pinto flubbed a pass deep in his own end. Gauthier pounced before waiting out Johansson to lift a shot past him.
The Ducks plunged into a hole off the hop, surrendering two goals in 62 seconds between 6:00 and 7:02. It took just four shots on net for the Sens to mount a 2-0 lead before slathering on a third marker at 17:37.
The former King Amadio made it 3-zip after Alex Killorn coughed up the puck to Giroux, who zipped a pass by Helleson and to Amadio for another breakaway goal.
Miscues were a persistent theme on all three goals.
The F3 vanished from the Ducks’ neutral-zone coverage, leaving two defensemen against three forwards. A precise, diagonal outlet pass from Sanderson liberated Giroux for a calm, collected breakaway finish.
Sam Colangelo tried unsuccessfully to pick off a cross-ice pass, leaving Thomas Chabot with space to skate toward the left dot. He ripped a snap shot that nicked Tomasino’s hand before beating Brossoit to the far side under the crossbar.
The Ducks will seek to carry momentum into a three-games-in-four-nights road swing through Western Canada that’ll begin Tuesday.