Early in the season the Anaheim Ducks had a habit of scoring early and often and then folding up like a cheap suit to lose close games.
Friday night was almost a throwback to those early games as the Ducks scored four goals in the first period then held on as they defeated the Dallas Stars, 4-2, in Anaheim.
“That might have been our best period of the season,” coach Bruce Boudreau told the Ducks website. “Obviously for goal-scoring it was, but [also] for energy and for overall playing the way we’re supposed to play.
“They started to play better in the second and third (period), but we did enough to hold on. It was a big two points.”
Jakob Silfverberg, Sami Vatanen, Hampus Lindholm and Corey Perry scored for the Ducks to get the game off to an exciting start.
“Any time you show up on that score sheet it brings a little bit of confidence to yourself, especially with the way I’ve been struggling,” Silfverberg said. “It’s just a matter of working hard.”
Dallas’ bench boss had tough words for his club after the loss.
“We’ll win when we deserve to win,” coach Lindy Ruff told the Stars website after Dallas lost its sixth consecutive road game (0-4-2). “We didn’t deserve to win. [We] didn’t compete hard enough. They beat us up the ice. We didn’t backcheck.
“The whole League is pretty well in playoff mode except for us.”
Frederik Andersen made 22 saves for the Ducks who moved two games over .500 at 19-17-7.
“That was nice,” Andersen said of playing with a big lead. “You have to play the whole 60 [minutes], but we came to play tonight. It was good to see. We worked hard in the first period and got the bounces we needed.”
Mattias Janmark and Jamie Benn scored for the Stars who have gone flat over the last three weeks.
“This is do-or-die for us,” Perry said. “We need to have that mentality from here on out.”
Kari Lehtonen made 31 saves in the loss for the Stars who are 1-4-1 in the month of January.
“It had nothing to do with our goalie,” Ruff said. “If it wasn’t for our goalie, I think it could have been 7-0.”
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