ANAHEIM, Calif. – For so many recent nights, so much had gone the way of the Anaheim Ducks with eight straight games of five or more goals. However, on some nights, it just doesn’t bounce your way at all.
Riding their own five-game winning streak, the Nashville Predators finished opportunities where the Ducks simply did not in the face of a stout goaltending performance from Justus Annunen in a 4-2 Nashville win on Wednesday at Honda Center.
Anaheim (9-8-1, 19 points) snaps its five-game winning streak and its white hot offensive run, while Nashville pushed out to its sixth straight win.
Cutter Gauthier continued his ludicrous goal-scoring streak, as the puck found him in the first period for his seventh straight game with a strike and his 14th goal in that span.
Gauthier tied Corey Perry (2013-14) for the third-longest streak in team history. Teemu Selanne owns the two longest streaks at eight games (1998-99) and 11 games (1997-98).
Mikael Granlund pulled the Ducks back within one late in the third period, 3-2, on a one-timer from Beckett Sennecke, who made up for his second missed breakaway with the feed.
Jayden Struble evened it up for the Predators in the first period, as he pushed forward into open space where Travis Mitchell and Tristan Luneau jumped up into the play and couldn’t break it up.
Nashville went ahead late in the second period, when Nils Höglander ripped off a highlight reel stunner, 2-1. Jackson LaCombe vacated the front of the net to make a play, but it went behind him to Höglander, who went between his legs and top shelf for the finish.
It was a two-goal lead for Nashville midway through the third period, even if no one knew it immediately. Anaheim couldn’t clear the zone, and newly acquired Shane Wright found a rebound in the slot and shot it off the center post in the back of the net.
The puck came out so quickly, no one immediately registered it as a goal, but on review, it was all the way in, 3-1.
Nashville got insurance by getting past a pinching Drew Helleson, and Mavrik Borque fed Steven Stamkos around a sprawling Jackson LaCombe to reinstate the two-goal lead, 4-2.
Laurent Brossoit stopped 18 of 22 shots in his fifth start in over a week with Anaheim. Lukáš Dostál was the back-up, and Ville Husso was a healthy scratch.
Justus Annunen made 25 saves for the Predators with over 2.12 goals saved above expected on the night.
Anaheim continues its four-game homestand with the first half of a back-to-back against the New York Islanders on Saturday. The Ducks will host Calgary on Sunday before hitting the road for a four-game trip.