A dismal four-game-game skid came to an end for the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday when they handed the Canucks a 7-4 loss in Vancouver. 
John Gibson made 16 saves in the Ducks win.
Anaheim scored three in the first period and three more in the middle frame for a 6-2 head heading to the third period.
The Ducks’ Nicolas Deslauriers and Adam Henrique hit for a double each in the win.
“This was 100 percent must-win,” Deslauriers said. “Now we have to do it again.”
That’s the real trick.
The Ducks improved to 24-19-9.
“We talked about it just before the game. We need to come out banging,” Deslauriers said. “Got to give credit to the second line that jumped on and scored right after. It’s almost a better feeling finishing my hit and seeing we score right after.”
The Canucks fell to 23-22-6.
“It’s pretty obvious Anaheim was way more of a desperate team, and they knew what was at stake,” Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They came out to avenge their four-game losing streak and we were just thinking it was going to be an ordinary game. That’s where it started and then it just unraveled after that.”
Troy Terry, Deslauriers, and Rickard Rakell scored in the first period for the big lead.
“We were very direct to the net,” Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins said. “We just wanted to get pucks there. We didn’t care how they got there, with bodies going there, and we wanted to be physical, and we were able to check all those three boxes early on.”
Anaheim pushed the lead to 5-0 with goals from Henrique (power play) and Sam Steel.
“Our power play has been good all year (25.9 percent, fifth in NHL) and it’s certainly nice to have that in your back pocket when maybe you don’t score as many goals five-on-five as other teams,” Eakins said. “It was good for them to crack in some tonight.”
The Canucks finally posted some offense to make the score 5-2 off goals from Tanner Pearson and Elias Pettersson .
After Deslauriers made the count 7-2 in favor of the Ducks early in the third period, Conor Garland and Quinn Hughes scored to make the score a little more decent on paper.
“They scored those two quick ones on us early and there was just no pushback from us,” Vancouver’s Bo Horvat said. “We’ve been in that position before where it’s tough to fight back down that much. It just was not a good start for us today.”
Thatcher Demko got the start for the Canucks, but was given the hook early in the middle frame after giving up the Ducks’ fifth goal, he made nine saves.
Jaroslav Halak made nine saves in a mop up.
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