ANAHEIM — The Ducks spotted the Vancouver Canucks two goals on Wednesday night and never fully recovered to take a lead, falling 5-4 at Honda Center.
Jackson LaCombe spearheaded the losing effort with a goal and two assists. Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist and Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish also scored for the Ducks. Petr Mrázek got the nod in net, making 23 of 27 saves with top goalie Lukáš Dostál unavailable (shoulder, day-to-day).
Linus Karlsson, Evander Kane, Conor Garland and Max Sasson each scored for Vancouver before Drew O’Connor tacked on an empty-netter, with Sasson chipping in an assist. Tom Willander and Filip Hronek had two assists apiece. Nikita Tolopilo stopped 37 shots in his first NHL appearance of the season.
The Ducks remained atop the Pacific Division but have given up the first goal in 15 of 23 games thus far. They’ve gone 8-0-0 when scoring first but remained below .500 when ceding first blood. In Saturday’s victory over Vegas, the Ducks trailed 2-0 after less than five minutes, but they circled the wagons to win in overtime.
“We gave up two to start, you can’t expect to win back-to-back games where you’re down two-nothing before you touch the puck,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said.
He added: “It’s a tough league when you’re digging that kind of a hole.”
Gauthier scored his team-leading 14th marker off a redirection of a LaCombe pass 6.3 seconds before the final horn, leaving the Ducks short a score.
O’Connor had hit the open cage from the red line with 1:52 to play. That was after Sasson scored from in tight, being one of three Canucks who outnumbered Drew Helleson at the net with 4:02 showing on the clock. The puck ricocheted off Mrázek’s skate and then Helleson’s.
“I didn’t like the way that the last one went in with our coverage in front,” Quenneville said.
Mrázek’s glove save on Jake DeBrusk with 8:41 still to play nearly proved pivotal when Frank Vatrano stole the puck and darted off on a partial breakaway, though he was unable to slip the puck through the 6-foot-6 Tolopilo’s five hole.
The Ducks moved back within a goal by scoring with 3:41 remaining in the second period, six seconds after a Karlsson penalty had expired. They then leveled the contest off a counterattack with 1:26 left in the frame.
LaCombe’s alert backhanded chip up to McTavish sent him and Beckett Sennecke off on a break. McTavish gave up the puck to Sennecke, whose silky return pass served up McTavish’s fifth goal of the season on a velvet pillow.
“I saw (McTavish) swinging through there, he was in the right spot so I just kind of tried to throw it up there, and those two made a great play,” LaCombe said.
Carlsson flicked in his 12th goal off his backhand to cap a sequence where he generated a juicy rebound for Troy Terry, who hit the post yet again, banking the puck off the iron and into the slot for Carlsson.
Vancouver went ahead 3-1 at the 9:04 mark off a stunning effort by Garland. He took the puck from Terry and moved it to Brock Boeser, who curled and returned the puck to Garland. Garland then undressed Helleson with a show-and-go move before deking from forehand to backhand to lift a shot over Mrázek’s pad.
A mere nine seconds passed in the middle frame before the Ducks halved their deficit, marking the third-fastest goal to begin a period in franchise history, per the NHL.
Having carried over a power play through the first intermission, the Ducks won the faceoff at center ice and attacked up the left-wing boards to draw three penalty killers. That opened up space for the trailing LaCombe, who stepped into a shot for his third goal of the season, all coming in his past five appearances.
In the first period, multiple promising chances for the Ducks twice meant a Vancouver goal was quick to follow.
Terry came close to scoring shorthanded, dinging the post, and fanned on a follow-up bid not long before Kane cashed in the power play, 11:47 after the opening draw. He adjusted his angle and flicked a wrist shot to the far side from high in the left circle.
The Ducks had an odd-man rush and a regrouping that saw them storm the Canucks’ net shortly before Karlsson pounced on a puck that caromed off the end boards to finish at the side of the net, 9:49 into the contest.
“We came out hot and we got our chances. A few bounces didn’t go our way, and that’s how it goes sometimes, but I didn’t think we did anything wrong at the start, it just happens,” LaCombe said.
Up next for the Ducks is the season’s first Freeway Faceoff on Friday, when they’ll host the Kings in a matinee.