It was anything but easy but the Anaheim Ducks needed to rally Saturday night to get past the Ottawa Senators, 4-3.
Trailing 3-0 in the third the Ducks rallied for three third period goals and Rickard Rakell scored on the power play in extra time to give the Ducks the win.
“We had a plan when we came out (for the power play in overtime),” Rakell said. “We tried it the first time, rolled it the second time and (Ryan) Getzlaf found me and I thought I had some time in the slot there, so I just went for the shot.”
Frederik Andersen stopped Mike Hoffman’s penalty shot to help Ducks rally past Ottawa – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Hampus Lindholm tied the game with less than a minute left in regulation.
Ryan Getzlaf and Jakob Silfverberg also scored for the Ducks.
The Sens built their 3-0 lead on goals from Mike Hoffman, Erik Karlsson and Chris Neil.
“I think we wanted it more than they did for the first two periods and even the beginning of the third,” Karlsson said. “Once they got the first goal, it feels like we don’t really want it that much anymore, and we don’t want to play the same way as we did early in the game, to keep it going. Good teams are going to make you pay.”
Frederik Andersen made 29 saves for the win.
“We left our goalie out to dry,” Getzlaf said. “He was getting backdoor tap-ins, those kinds of things, and it’s unlike our group. It was nice to see the character to come back and regroup and do what we did in the third. We got fed up with the way we were playing.”
Andersen may have been hung out to dry but he made a stop on a penalty shot from Ottawa’s Hoffman early in the third; a goal would have blunted the Ducks’ rally.
“Once we got the goal in the third period and we stopped the penalty shot, they believed they could win,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They did what they do when they’re playing well. We didn’t give up a lot of good chances and we went to the net and threw pucks at the net and our big guys won battles in front of the net and that’s the secret to our win.”
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