The Anaheim Ducks can wrap an already successful road trip Monday when they visit Detroit.
The Ducks will be playing the finale of a five-game swing. They are 3-0-1 on the trip, with wins at Boston, Montreal and Ottawa along with a shootout loss in Toronto.
On Saturday, they escaped with a 2-1 win over the Senators.
“We’re a team that’s learning how to win, and that’s a process you have to go through and experience,” said assistant coach Geoff Ward, who is running the team with head coach Dallas Eakins in COVID protocol. “When you start out a road trip the way we did, and you don’t understand the process, it’s easy to take your foot off the gas.”
Goalie John Gibson stymied Ottawa by making a season-high 44 saves.
“We feel like there are opportunities for us to cut those shots down,” Ward said. “Saying that, we haven’t had a lot of time to practice, either, with the amount of travel and everything. We’re looking at getting through this game in Detroit and then we have an opportunity to come back (after the All-Star break) and get after some of these issues.”
After a month in which they lost nine of 11 games, the Ducks have earned nine points in their last five games, starting with their 5-1 home win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Following the All-Star break, their next game is Feb. 11 at home against Seattle before they set out on another three-game road swing.
Troy Terry, who leads the Ducks with 25 goals and 41 points, had one of the two goals at Ottawa. He has scored seven goals in nine January games.
The Red Wings will try to bounce back from Saturday’s 7-4 loss to the Maple Leafs, when they gave up five unanswered goals in the third period.
A three-point night by Dylan Larkin was wasted after they had built a 4-2 lead after two.
“This one hurts a lot,” Larkin said. “We have to find a way to win those games.”
Detroit was playing a back-to-back after winning a shootout at Pittsburgh on Friday. Their energy level dissipated in the final period against Toronto.
“We gave up some opportunities we didn’t need to, and they had the momentum in the third period,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “We didn’t have enough push back. Our defensive zone coverage was no good. We have to make sure we’re better than that in the defensive zone.”
Blashill saw some defensive slippage in the second period and it only got worse as the Maple Leafs roared back in the final 11 minutes to score three goals in eight minutes, and then add two empty-netters at the end.
“We let them have their way and sat back and they came at us in waves,” Larkin said. “You can’t do that for 20 minutes in this league.”
Detroit is 1-3-1 over the past five games while dropping a game below .500. The Red Wings have not fallen two games under the .500 mark all season.
They have a home game against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday before a weeklong break, returning to action on Feb. 9.
In the teams’ other meeting this season, Anaheim collected a 4-3 shootout victory at home on Jan. 9. Trevor Zegras had a goal and an assist in regulation and scored in the shootout for the Ducks.
–Field Level Media