ANAHEIM — Feathers flew in a clash of amphibious birds, but in the end the Pittsburgh Penguins were no match for the Ducks, who soared, 5-2, at Honda Center on Sunday evening.
Sporting their talk-of-the-league Hometown Remix uniforms inspired by the original Mighty Ducks film, the Ducks won their fifth game in a row. The Penguins, who’d beaten the Kings 23 hours earlier, fell for the ninth time in their past dozen decisions.
Cutter Gauthier continued his onslaught with his fourth career hat trick and third this season, as well as a primary assist on Mikael Granlund’s goal. Granlund had three helpers to equal the total of Jackson LaCombe. Tristan Luneau also tallied. Laurent Brossoit got the nod in net, made 32 saves and improved to 4-0-0 after going 926 days between NHL wins.
Evgeni Malkin assisted on power-play goals by Kris Letang and former Duck Rickard Rakell. Arturs Silovs stopped 20 shots.
Though Pittsburgh carried 5-on-5 play early, the Ducks picked up the first period’s sole goal.
The instant after Kaedan Korczak’s penalty expired, Granlund dropped to the ice to swipe in a loose puck that resulted from Gauthier’s blocked shot attempt. Granlund has recorded a point or more in six straight matches and Gauthier has done so in eight straight.
Granlund’s fifth goal of the season saw the secondary assist credited to LaCombe. LaCombe’s 10 uninterrupted games with an assist tied Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry for the longest string with a helper in franchise history. He has the second-longest active point streak and the second-longest assist streak in the NHL all season, trailing only Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid in both instances.
Brossoit was also strong in the period, withstanding the sort of early push that got the Penguins a 2-0 lead over the Kings a mere 5:10 into Saturday’s victory. He also made perhaps his best save on the scorer of both those goals, Tommy Novak, stopping an unmarked Novak’s bid from the low slot.
He and his cohorts would all have to be sharp again early in the second period, when the Ducks had to kill three consecutive minor penalties, including 1:37 of two-man disadvantage and 4:23 total time shorthanded.
They’d soon get an extra-man opportunity of their own and cashed in yet again – they’re 17 for their past 33 during an eight-game conversion streak – when Gauthier appeared to stun Silovs with a sharp-angle shot through the Latvian’s five-hole at the 6:28 mark.
That he scored should have been no surprise: his sixth consecutive game with a goal tied Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and Carolina’s Mark Jankowski for the longest streak in the NHL this season. Eight of his 12 goals during the surge have come on the power play, as have 10 of his 15 tallies this season.
Goal No. 14 came at 9:11 when Gauthier timed his run through the Pittsburgh defense expertly to receive a Granlund feed and score low to Silovs’ blocker side.
The Ducks would take an even more commanding lead 5:12 into the closing stanza with yet another man-advantage marker off a rising wrist shot from Luneau. Luneau extended his point streak to eight games, during which he has 11 points.
Pittsburgh pulled Silovs during a power play with over 13 minutes left in the contest. The unconventional move worked when Letang hammered a one-timer through traffic with 11:55 to play.
They’d add another 6-on-4 goal when Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Rakell connected on a tic-tac-toe play with 6:18 displayed on the game clock.
Just 33.1 seconds remained when Gauthier put a bow on his hat trick and gave the Ducks five or more goals in eight straight outings. That is the longest such streak since the 1988-89 Kings led by Wayne Gretzky.