Defensive breakdowns dismantle dominant Ducks in third straight loss

ANAHEIM, Calif. – It was an effort, by most metrics, worthy of getting the Anaheim Ducks back on track. However, the massive defensive breakdowns reared their heads again to drag the Ducks down into a hole they could not shoot their way out of.

The San Jose Sharks scored four goals on nine shots, capitalizing on turnovers and odd-man rushes, and despite a 29-shot advantage, Anaheim came up just short in a 5-4 loss on Monday at Honda Center.

The Ducks have lost three in a row for the second time this season and five of the last six games.

“I thought we were ready to play from the start,” Troy Terry said. “I thought we were skating tonight, which is what we kind of haven't been doing. We just seemed like a faster team again, and that's kind of what we were doing. We were rolling. It's hard to feel like you're dictating the game. I think just maybe some game management stuff costs us.”

Anaheim outshot San Jose, 42-13, and despite two goals from Terry, including one with the goaltender pulled to cut the Sharks lead back to one, the Ducks could not get out of the 4-1 deficit.

Cutter Gauthier put up a two-point night with a goal and an assist, and Pavel Mintyukov scored his fifth goal of the season.

“It's tough. I think as a whole, we played a really good game,” Gauthier said. “Thought we had a really good second and third period, but their goalie played a really good game, and it's just unfortunate you have some games like that, and you just have to keep the positive mindset that we did our fundamentals and just didn't come up with enough goals.”

Lukáš Dostál allowed four goals on nine shots before being pulled late in the second period. Shots on goal at the time were 23-9 in favor of the Ducks, and the score was 4-1. Petr Mrázek made three saves in relief.

“It was a tough one,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought we did a lot of good things and chased the game, but we gave ourselves a chance, and we chipped away, chipped away, and just a little short at the end. I thought it was a good response from what we were going into today's game, and two points was what the ultimate prize. There's a lot of positives coming out of it.”

Anaheim will look to snap its skid in a New Year’s Eve matinee on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Ducks similarly couldn’t get over the hump in an attempted comeback effort in a 4-3 loss in Tampa on Oct. 25.

Defensive Deconstruction

Before Anaheim accumulated the positives Quenneville referred to, the Ducks committed all too familiar and high-impact mistakes to fall into a 4-1 hole.

On the whole, Anaheim limited the Sharks’ offensive possessions. San Jose put up just 13 shots, tied for the fewest in the league this season and the fewest given up by the Ducks since 2014. The Sharks earned just 22.85% of the expected goals at five-on-five.

In spite of that systematic success, miscommunications, turnovers and holes in the usually reliable goaltending did in the Ducks on Monday.

“The goals are, I mean, kind of came out of nowhere,” Quenneville said. “You'd say self-inflicted wounds. There's always one more line of defense, but everybody on the ice should take some responsibility for what they could have done differently. That's how you gotta look at it when you move forward and learn from situations.”

With Jackson LaCombe pinched and Mikael Granlund’s backcheck not caught up, Drew Helleson challenged a puck in the neutral zone but got beat up the wall. Alexander Wennberg spun and found Mario Ferraro through Lukas Dostal’s crease at the back post for the opening strike.

Macklin Celebrini stripped Granlund just outside the Ducks’ blueline and beat Jacob Trouba back to the net in transition for the quick go-ahead goal on Dostál’s shortside in the final minute of the first period.

Beckett Sennecke tried to drop the puck to Mason McTavish just as McTavish collided with a San Jose forechecker. Celebrini picked up the loose puck, fed it through the charging Ducks defense of Trouba and Olen Zellweger to Igor Chernyshov alone at the top of the paint. Chernyshov moved to his backhand to beat Dostal high and farside for the 3-1 lead.

On San Jose’s fourth goal, Helleson couldn’t make a play on the wall, and when he recovered, Celebrini swooped in to strip the puck and escape to the back of the net. William Eklund slid in behind a puck-focused Leo Carlsson, and Celebrini fed Eklund for the one-timer past Dostál’s farside glove.

“Just mental mistakes, it feels like,” Terry said. “Whether it's missing assignments, defensively, or like turnovers, not getting pucks in, myself included in that. It's those little things that, it feels like we're not capitalizing on their mistakes as much as we were maybe early in the year. Because I think we've been making those mistakes. We just were maybe out-capitalizing them early. So I think, as the season kind of comes up like this, we just kind of learn to kind of manage that, and realize we're in control of a game and just limit whatever we're giving.”

Helleson was beat on a similar play to the Sharks first goal on the final shift of the second period, but Petr Mrázek came up with the save. Helleson did not see the ice in the third period, instead manning the door at the end of the bench.

When asked about Helleson’s play and benching, Quenneville shifted the focus.

“You got different guys,” Quenneville said. “I think every game's different, and, some guys were playing, you know, I thought (Pavel Mintyukov) had his strongest game of the year, and so, we got him going. That pair (with Ian Moore) was very solid, especially offensively, and doing some good things, and that was probably a big part of it.”

Without directly saying so, it seemed like Quenneville also put some onus on his starting netminder. This was the second game in two weeks where Dostál had been pulled, giving up four goals on nine shots tonight and four goals on seven shots against Dallas on Dec. 19.

In addition to Quenneville’s quote “there’s always another line of defense,” the Ducks coach didn’t look fondly on the quality of the chances on the first few goals given up.

“I think we needed one or two of those prevented,” Quenneville said. “There is some quality, but tonight, I can't talk about quality against us.”

Offensive Shine

Through all the defensive breakdowns, Anaheim still managed to give itself a shot to win with an unrelenting offensive attack.

The Ducks got a gift for their first goal of the night, as Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov fumbled a puck behind the net to Nikita Nesterenko, who fed Terry in front for the easy 1-1 equalizer. It was a quality showing for Nesterenko in his first game after nearly a month of healthy scratches.

“I liked that line (Nesterenko, Terry and Ryan Poehling). I liked what he brought,” Quenneville said of Nesterenko. “They brought speed. They had possession. They're dangerous off the rush in the zone. They kind of read off one another in a lot of situations. That line was very dangerous, and Nesty was nice to see him respond in a good way.”

Gauthier earned a goal by going to the top of the crease for a deflection of a Terry shot, and Gauthier set up a real shot in the arm for the Ducks, as he found Mintyukov zooming down the slot on the rush for a piercing snipe to bring the Ducks back within a goal, 4-3, three minutes into the third period.

After San Jose reestablished a two-goal lead on a tip from the point, Anaheim pulled Mrázek for the extra attacker early, and Terry finished off a beautiful netfront pass from Mason McTavish. However, that’s as close as the final charge got.

It was the second time in two games the Ducks amassed over 40 shots on goal, but just as it was last Monday against Seattle, a strong goaltending performance did just enough to hold off the Ducks. Anaheim earned 77.15% of the expected goals at five-on-five against San Jose.

“It's not every night you have 40 plus shots on net,” Gauthier said. “That was one of the things Q talked about going into the game is shoot the puck and create opportunities off of it, and we did a really good job at that. But, like I mentioned earlier, that wasn't enough for tonight.”

Injury Updates

Ducks forward Frank Vatrano was out on Monday with an upper-body injury after falling head-first into the boards in Los Angeles on Saturday. He did not return after the third-period incident.

Quenneville said on Monday morning that they did not have a full diagnosis, but Vatrano “might miss a little bit of time.”

Ducks captain Radko Gudas and enforcer Ross Johnston both were out on Monday due to illness.