Ducks’ latest comeback bid falls short in loss to Canadiens – Orange County Register

ANAHEIM — Canadian Thanksgiving fell before American Thanksgiving and a little tryptophan might have doomed the Ducks to a sleepy start against the Montreal Canadiens as they fell behind by two goals and then let a tie game slip away late, falling, 4-3, on Wednesday night at Honda Center.
The Ducks’ bid for their seventh third-period comeback of the season fell short despite knotting the score in the frenzied final frame and getting solid contributions from core players of both the present and future.
Mason McTavish and Frank Vatrano dazzled offensively with McTavish producing two goals, Vatrano netting one and each adding a primary assist. John Gibson made 25 saves in the Ducks’ fourth straight loss.
Alex Newhook bookended the scoring for Montreal, which also got goals from Kaiden Guhle and Mike Matheson as well as two assists from Jake Evans. Samuel Montembault sparkled with 30 saves.
Newhook’s winner came during a four-on-four situation with 3:20 left, with Evans securing the puck in the neutral zone and speeding ahead on a two-on-one rush that Newhook finished off a cross-ice pass for his second goal of the game and sixth of the season.
In the third period, the Ducks owned the early going and left Montembault in a precarious position, sans goal stick, for an extended stretch that saw them enter the Montreal zone three times. Though they couldn’t take advantage of his missing equipment, they generated an odd-man rush once he recovered his twig, only to be robbed by his glove as he snared Vatrano’s wrister as it ascended toward a large aperture in the net.
Vatrano, however, would not be denied with 8:29 to play when he received McTavish’s drop pass and fired a searing shot from the right circle that beat Montembault high to the short side for Vatrano’s team-leading 13th goal of 2023-24.
The middle frame brought a pushback from the Ducks in the form of two McTavish markers that had Matheson’s goal sandwiched between them.
McTavish reached double digits for the season with his second soft-touch goal from in tight on the night, though he did less in the buildup this time. That was left to Frank Vatrano, who gained the zone by bursting past one defender and set up McTavish for a no-doubt goal by spinning off another to cut the deficit to one six minutes into the period. Rookie defenseman Tristan Luneau’s assist represented his first NHL point and the Ducks became the first team in almost 12 years to have four players 20 years or younger record a point in the same game.
Montreal had wasted little time regaining its two-goal edge, scoring less than a minute after the Ducks got on the board. Matheson’s shot from high between the circles beat Gibson through traffic. His 15 points in 18 appearances have him on track to obliterate his previous single-season best of 34 points.
A mere 53 seconds into the period the Ducks got one back four seconds into a power play. McTavish won the draw back to Pavel Mintyukov who dished to Leo Carlsson, whose seam pass found McTavish for a redirection goal.
The Ducks have allowed the first goal in 12 of 19 matches this season and Wednesday they doubled down, ceding two tallies in a 39-second span in the first period.
Montreal stretched its advantage after it won the puck in the neutral zone, at which point Guhle activated and drove hard to the net for a point-blank goal.
An early penalty to Ilya Lyubushkin fettered the Ducks 5:59 into the contest when they allowed a de facto power-play goal. Though they technically killed the penalty, their inability to clear their zone and Lyubushkin’s long skate from the penalty box back into the play allowed former King Tanner Pearson to find Newhook all alone inside the left circle for a goal.
More to come on this story.

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