The Anaheim Ducks are not exempt from the vagaries of this NHL season. They have been down and up and down and up and now down again, having lost their third straight game, 7-4, Monday night to the Maple Leafs in Toronto.
Auston Matthews and William Nylander struck for two goals each in the Leafs win.
“Definitely a good bounce-back game for us,” Matthews said. “It was kind of a back-and-forth game, but we showed some resilience, stayed with it, and we’re happy with the two points. We wanted to get off to a good start. Our line (with Nylander and Zach Hyman) wasn’t happy with our performance on Saturday.”
Toronto has shaken off its last skid and have won five of their six games and improved to 31-19-5 with the win.
Frederik Andersen got the start for the Leafs but departed the game in the middle frame after being kicked in the head by Corey Perry.
Curtis McElhinney relieved Andersen and made 15 saves the rest of the way.
“It’s an unfortunate thing; I know they have a couple guys who go to the net pretty hard and you don’t want to see anybody go down like that,” McElhinney said. “Hopefully, [Andersen] is all right, but I was able to make the most of it when I went in there. I felt a little sluggish, I would say. Sometimes, those situations are difficult to get into, but I thought we responded pretty well when I went in there.”
Rickard Rakell struck for two goals and Ryan Getzlaf and Ondrej Kase also scored for the Ducks.
“We’re not going to beat anybody 8-7, I’ll tell you that. Overall as a group, we just have to play better,” Getzlaf said. “We have to be [ticked] off in here after these last three games, and the way we’ve played defensive hockey is abysmal, giving up over five goals a night.”
Leo Komarov, Mitchell Marner and Leon Komarov also scored for Toronto.
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Ryan Miller made 33 saves in the loss.
“It’s not terrible, but we’d like to clean up a few things,” Miller said. “I thought the third-period goals were things we could just clean up by structure.”
The Ducks dropped to 25-19-10 with the loss.
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