ANAHEIM, Calif. — The 16,000-plus fans in attendance at Honda Center on Sunday night had one request.
With how the standings sat, the Ducks needed two points to clinch the team’s first berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in eight years. Win, and they're in.
While the Ducks were trailing 2-1 to the lowly Vancouver Canucks after two periods of play, the start of the third began with loud chants of “We want playoffs” from the crowd. The chants only intensified throughout the night, and it pierced through Honda Center after Leo Carlsson delivered the game-tying goal with 13 minutes left in regulation.
Despite a valiant comeback effort, the Ducks fell short of the patrons’ pleas, losing 4-3 in overtime to the Canucks.
“We wanted to complete that wish tonight,” head coach Joel Quenneville said. “We still got some work to do.”
Cutter Gauthier returned to the lineup after missing the previous five games with an upper-body injury, and the leading goal scorer for the Ducks made an immediate impact upon his return. Chris Kreider poked a loose rebound right to Gauthier, who had made an easy tap-in to get the scoring started, not even four minutes into the game.
Early in the third period, Gauthier struck again when he ripped a one-time feed past Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo for a power play goal.
His second goal of the game was his 40th of the season. Gauthier is the fourth Duck in franchise history to reach the 40-goal plateau, and the first to do so since Corey Perry did it in 2013-2014. Gauthier joins Perry and Hall of Famers Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya in the 40-goal club in Ducks history.
“It's a huge milestone and something I'm very proud of,” Gauthier said. “I couldn't have done it without all my linemates and teammates. It was fun to get that, but that's not why I'm playing hockey. I'm playing hockey to win games and eventually win a Stanley Cup.”
Unfortunately, Gauthier’s milestone moment was not part of a storybook ending that helped the Ducks punch their ticket to the playoffs.
Shortly after Gauthier’s goal in the first period, the Canucks dominated the rest of the period.
“They kept the tempo,” Radko Gudas said of the Canucks. “They put it deep, and they had a good forecheck. All five guys, they didn't give us many odd-man rushes. We had to go through all the layers every time we came into the zone.”
The Canucks nabbed a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes of the opening frame, including the first NHL goal for Curtis Douglas and a power-play goal from Jake DeBrusk.
“When they scored that goal, it certainly gave them some life, and they got some momentum off it,” Quenneville said of the goal by Douglas.
Early on in the third period, it really felt like it might not be the night for the Ducks.
The Ducks were on the power play, looking to tie the game. But Brock Boeser had other plans.
Boeser poked a loose puck free and sprung himself on a breakaway. He went forehand-backhand-forehand and roofed a crushing shorthanded goal to extend the lead to 3-1.
But then, the Ducks caught fire.
Gauthier notched his milestone-setting power play goal just 37 seconds later. A minute after that, a weird bounce sent the puck to Kreider, who put it on net and Carlsson picked up the rebound and back-handed it off the mask of Tolopilo and into the back of the net to tie the game.
“I thought the guys responded really well in the third,” Gudas said. “We had great shifts. We had a great pace in the game. I thought we could have taken over in the end of the third.”
The Ducks kept up the pressure, but were left off the scoresheet the rest of the way, forcing overtime.
The Ducks started off overtime with a few scoring chances, but then Kreider took a slashing penalty with 2:07 left to try to prevent a breakaway, and sent the Ducks to kill off a 4-on-3 penalty kill.
“We just didn't make it easy on ourselves, that's for sure tonight,” Quenneville said.
They almost got away with it, too.
With only 10 seconds left in overtime, Marco Rossi fired a one-timer that snuck its way in between the side post and the arm of Lukáš Dostál and into the back of the net to squash the Ducks’ hopes of clinching a playoff spot.
“I think a little bit about our urgency,” Gauthier said. “I thought we had a great effort in the third period. Hemming them in the O-Zone and getting great opportunities and great looks. I think we waited a little bit too long at times to have that urgency to really close out a game. I thought tonight was a great opportunity to clinch a playoff spot, but we fell a little short.”
This overtime loss puts the Ducks at 90 points on the season with only two games remaining, which are on the road against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, who have 102 points, and the Nashville Predators on Thursday, who have 86 points and are in the chase for the last playoff spot.
The Predators play on Monday night against the San Jose Sharks, and if they lose in any fashion, the Ducks will clinch the elusive playoff berth. If the Predators win, then the Ducks will have to pick up at least one point in their final two games to clinch.