In Newark Saturday afternoon, the Anaheim Ducks’ John Gibson made 29 saves to backstop a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.
The win was the second straight for the Ducks after a 12-game losing skid.
“You don’t want to win one and then go back to losing, so I think this was as big a win as the one we won in Minnesota,” Gibson said. “Maybe it wasn’t as pretty, but we’ll take the two points and move on.”
Newcomer Derek Grant scored his first for the Ducks since coming over from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Ducks improved to 21-19-9.
“Winning two straight helps the mindset and psyche of our group but we’ve played better than we did [Saturday] and have lost hockey games,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “That’s the crazy thing about sports. We were very flat-footed in the second period but got a big goal from Grant in the third period.”
Daniel Sprong and Troy Terry also scored for Anaheim.
“My job is to stop the puck, and it doesn’t matter if it’s hard or easy,” Gibson said. “I just go out there and play. I can’t control what they do or what they give up. I just got to be there for them and do my best.”
New Jessey got goals from Jesper Bratt and Marcus Johansson.
“I thought we played really well but we just have a get more net front and more second and third chances,” Devils captain Andy Greene said. “I thought our game was good, but we have to find a way to scratch and claw to get points out of it.”
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Devils highlights]
Mackenzie Blackwood made 11 saves in the lo9ss.
“All four lines were competing and maybe we deserved a little better. I think [John Gibson] did a good job of making the first stop,” Kyle Palmieri said. “They did a good job of clearing the rebounds. We didn’t get a ton of looks or it was us getting pushed out of those areas. We were competing and following pucks at the net and testing him as much as we could but we couldn’t find a way to get it through him.”
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