In Dallas Tuesday, the Anaheim Ducks built a 3-0 lead and then sat back and watched the Stars rally for a 4-3 regulation win.
“Today was the first day we found a way to lose,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We had the lead. The other games, we’ve been behind but we found a way to lose. I don’t know if that happened to us last year.”
Boudreau almost certainly feels the heat on his coach’s seat as the Ducks are now 1-6-2 and looking up at the Pacific Division and not down.
“Well, you can call it what you want. It’s demoralizing,” he said. “We have a 3-0 lead and you should not lose a game like that. We can sugarcoat it and say it’s ran out of gas or whatever, but these guys are professional athletes. There should be no such thing as running out of gas.”
Frederik Andersen made 30 saves in the loss and Antti Niemi had 17 saves in the win.
The Ducks built their early lead on goals from Mike Santorelli, Shawn Horcoff and Carl Hagelin.
“Obviously, there’s a formula there for us, how we need to play to play well,” Horcoff said. “At least we found that out tonight, but at the same time, we need wins now and we need to close games out, especially when you’re up 3-0. There’s just no excuses.”
Patrick Sharp started the rally for the Stars but the Ducks still had an opportunity.
“We had a couple of chances to make it 4-1, but we didn’t,” Hagelin said. “They got a goal on their PK, which gave them momentum. All of a sudden we’re on our heels and not making plays. Against a good offensive team like that, you know they’re going to capitalize.”
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