In Anaheim, Casey DeSmith made 17 saves to help the visiting Vancouver Canucks to a 2-1 win over the Ducks on Sunday evening. 
The Canucks were in need of a win after losing six of their previous seven matches.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been so happy to win a game,” DeSmith said. “Obviously, personally, it feels really good, kind of get off the skid, but also huge win for the team to start off this road trip on the right foot.”
They moved to 39-17-7) off the win.
“Nice job by Casey to come in and play like that,” Vancouver’s Connor Garland said. “It’s a great game by him. We hung him out to dry in Minnesota.”
The Canucks took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Nils Hoglander at 1:37 of the first, it was the first shot on goal for the Canucks in the game.
ANaheim repeated the feat when Alex Killorn scored with the Ducks’ first shot at 4:14 off a puck that refused to settle down for the Canucks for a clear.
“The first period wasn’t great, in the sense that we didn’t get a ton of opportunities,” Killorn said. “They played a lot in our zone, but as the game went on, I thought we played pretty good with all of the hockey we’ve been playing lately.”
The Canucks outshot the Ducks, 14-3 in the opening stanza.
The Ducks dropped to 22-36-3, snapping a two-game streak.
“Those games hurt because you’re in the game,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “At the same time, they had more chances than we did. I don’t think we generated enough. We had some zone time, particularly in the second period, but we weren’t able to get pucks to the net. They did a really good job of taking lanes away and blocking shots.”
After the Ducks killed off consecutive penalties, Garland scored at 3:34 of the middle frame to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead.
“The second goal was unnecessary,” Cronin said. “We killed two penalties off in a row and then [Sam Carrick] comes out of the box and we’re in a 5-on-5 situation and it seemed like we didn’t react to it. It looked like we had lost our structure and to give a tap-in goal like that, as a game-winner, that’s frustrating.”
Lukas Dostal made 29 saves in the loss.
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