ANAHEIM, Calif. – How in the world do these Anaheim Ducks keep pulling this off?
With the top-two comeback win teams facing off on Friday, both had their chances to add to their total. The Montreal Canadiens overcame the first goal of the game. Anaheim overturned a 2-1 deficit. Even when the Ducks seemingly took hold at 4-2, the Habs fired back with three goals in five minutes to lead in the third period.
Anaheim then responded with its own brand of magic: a Chris Kreider final-minute deflection, the shootout and home ice.
Kreider tied the game with his career-best-tying fourth point of the night with 42 seconds remaining, Alex Killorn scored a sixth-round shootout tiebreaker and Lukáš Dostál locked it down again, as the Ducks beat Montreal, 6-5, at Honda Center.
“That's one of those games coaches don't enjoy but the fans do, right?” Kreider said. “I don't really know what to say about the games right now, to be honest, because they've been kind of chaotic, kind of crazy. Again, very entertaining, I think.”
Anaheim has now won five of six games on this homestand, all in comeback fashion to tie Montreal with an NHL-high 19 comeback victories. The Ducks are also far and away the league’s shootout leaders with a perfect 8-0 record in the tiebreaker.
The Ducks have won seven of their last eight games overall and 10 of their last 11 home games with a 14-3-0 record in their last 17 games. Anaheim is 22-9-1 at home.
“Pretty high event, I'd say,” Jacob Trouba said. “Find a way to win games. That's what's important.”
Trouba earned two assists, including the game-tying assist on the shot deflected in by Kreider. The game-tying goal was the Ducks league-leading fifth final-minute goal of the season.
Cutter Gauthier scored for the fourth straight game to open the contest with his seventh goal in six games since the restart and ninth goal in the last eight games overall.
Radko Gudas, Jackson LaCombe and Leo Carlsson all scored in this wild, back-and-forth affair.
Dostál made 23 saves and stopped five of six Montreal shootout attempts.
“We did what we wanted to do at the start of the year, and we kind of did what we did at the start of the year coming out of the break,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said, “but we wanted to have a positive beginning again, that could put us in a spot at the end. We've had about four of these games, like today, that you could say, hey, we're fortunate in ways, but we find a way to compete, right to the end, and we have some guys that could put the puck in the net, and we have some goalies that make big saves at big times.”
For the first time since Dec. 22, Anaheim (35-24-3, 73 points) jumped into first place in the Pacific Division, leapfrogging Vegas (29-20-14, 71 points), which lost in Minnesota on Friday. The Ducks still have one game in hand on the Knights with 20 games to play.
This is the latest Anaheim has held first place in the division since 2017, the last time the Ducks captured a Pacific Division title. Anaheim's 35 wins also matches its full 82-game total from last season in just 62 games.
Edmonton (30-25-8, 68 points) is now five points back of Anaheim after losing in Carolina tonight. The Ducks have one game in hand on the Oilers, as well.
Seattle (29-23-9, 67 points) fell to six points behind Anaheim in the second wild card with one fewer game played.
The Ducks close out this season-long seven-game homestand against St. Louis on Sunday.
Trade Deadline Round-Up
It’s been a busy couple days off the ice in Anaheim leading up to Friday's noon Pacific trade deadline. Catch up with the all the latest:
Ducks GM Pat Verbeek: “Worth it” to finally trade collected assets, make playoff push
Ducks acquire veteran defenseman John Carlson from Washington
The 36-year-old Carlson is “not near done,” “thrilled” to join Anaheim in deadline deal
Ryan Strome ends four-year run with Ducks, traded to Calgary at deadline