Ducks salvage a point, drop road trip finale to Blue Jackets in overtime

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It was the back end of a back-to-back to close out a long Eastern road trip, and it certainly looked like it at plenty of points for the Anaheim Ducks.

Anaheim did salvage a point to finish even on the road trip, but the Columbus Blue Jackets grabbed the extra point on a blazing overtime strike from Adam Fantilli in a 4-3 victory on Tuesday at Nationwide Arena.

Jackson LaCombe scored the equalizer off the back of Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves’ helmet with just over three minutes remaining. Anaheim and Columbus traded a combined four goals over a two-minute stretch in the second period, with Ryan Strome and Mikael Granlund. Zach Werenski scored twice for the Blue Jackets.

“It’s never the easiest ones to play these back-to-back,” Granlund said on the Ducks Victory+ broadcast. “Obviously, we wanted the two points. It’s never easy, and at least we got the one point. Let’s move on from here.”

Ville Husso took the start in the second half of the back-to-back and stopped 24 of 28 shots.

The Ducks went 0-for-4 on the power play and killed off both Blue Jackets power plays in the third period.

Anaheim finished up the five-game road trip at 2-2-1 with five of a possible 10 points. The Ducks return home for three games going into the Christmas break, starting on Friday against Dallas.

The Ducks (21-12-2, 42 points) edged into first place in the Pacific Division, but Vegas (16-6-9, 41 points) has three games in hand on Anaheim.

Jackson in Action

It was an eventful road trip for Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who scored three goals and four points on the five-game road trip. LaCombe has points in six of the last seven games.

Two of LaCombe’s three goals on the road trip came from below the goal line.

LaCombe scored the first goal of the trip with a sharp-angle shot coming down the left wing in Pittsburgh. On Tuesday, LaCombe tied the game off an even sharper angle coming down the left wing. The blue liner dropped below the goal line and shot off the back of the Columbus netminder’s helmet and in.

LaCombe also popped in a shorthanded goal last night in New York City.

The 24-year-old paced the Ducks defensive corps in Columbus with 58.88% expected goal share at five-on-five.

Fourth Line Shines

The combination of Ross Johnston, Ryan Poehling and Ryan Strome led the Ducks’ offensive efforts at five-on-five.

Strome scored off a give-and-go with Poehling for the Ducks’ first goal in the second period. 

In 7:49 time-on-ice at five-on-five, the trio earned 88.36% of expected goals with a punishing forecheck. This was in sharp contrast to the second line of Chris Kreider, Mason McTavish and Beckett Sennecke, who combined for 9.34% expected goal share in 8:07 time-on-ice while struggling to clear the zone.

On a night where the Ducks looked gassed, energy shifts from the fourth line kept Anaheim within striking distance.

Power Play Still Struggling

Despite Cutter Gauthier sniping a power play goal off the rush in New York last night, Anaheim went 0-for-4 on the power play with just five shots with the extra man on Tuesday. The Ducks have gone 1-for-12 on the power play over the last five games and are 3-for-31 over the last 10 games.

Gauthier nearly put in another on the power play, as he beat the Columbus goalie five-hole in the final minute of the first period. However, the puck trickled through the netminder and off the far post to keep the power play off the board.

Steve 2K-arroll

It was a momentous night on the broadcast side, as Ducks audio play-by-play Steve Carroll called his 2,000th regular-season game for Anaheim on Tuesday in Columbus. The Ducks have played 2,472 regular season games in franchise history, and Carroll has been the radio voice of the Ducks since 1999.

Much has changed in Carroll’s 27 seasons with Anaheim, going from terrestrial radio broadcasts over various airwaves to now online broadcasts via Ducks Stream on the TuneIn app.

Carroll has been behind a microphone for nearly 50 years as a play-by-play broadcaster calling NHL hockey, minor league baseball, minor league hockey, pro soccer, college football and college basketball with broadcasts in every state except Alaska and Idaho. 

Carroll will be inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame next month.