Only two games graced the NHL schedule Monday night ahead of a packed slate for Tuesday night. In Anaheim, the Ducks needed a three-goal rally in the third period force extra time and eventually upend the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in the talent portion of the game.
The hockey gods or perhaps Teemu Selanne were on the Ducks side as Selanne was shown catching the game in the crowd. Within a span of 3:40 after Selanne’s visage the Ducks three times.
“I think we should get him in here every game, and just wait [for] the third to show up,” Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin joked. “Huge win for us, especially down 2-0 going into the third. We didn’t quit. We kept going. They did a great job in the first two periods keeping us out [and] keeping shots down. We couldn’t find a way to get it through and finally in the third we did and it paid off.”
So maybe it was just the Ducks waking up or the Red Wings falling asleep.
“I thought it turned when we didn’t panic getting down two [goals],” Andrew Cogliano said. “We’ve learned our lesson at times during the season where we’ve gone down 2- or 3-0, and for whatever reason we’ve lost our composure and taken more penalties and try to win the game in five minutes and we end up losing big, and I thought tonight we just stuck to the game plan.”
In the end, it was Detroit that needed a late rally of its own to force the extra time as the three-goal outburst sent the Ducks to a 3-2 lead. Riley Sheahan’s made it 3-3.
“We’ve got to be able to keep our composure a little bit better than that,” Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “But in saying that, I thought we did a good job of finding a way to get back again. All in all, I thought we played a pretty good game. For 45 minutes, 50 minutes, I thought it was a real good game for us.”
John Gibson made 35 saves on the night and stopped two of three shooters in the skills competition for the win.
“I thought we controlled the game,” Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. “The puck found a way in our net a couple times. I didn’t like it, but I thought our team played good and played hard. Our kids were good.”
In Newark, the Devils’ Cory Schneider stopped 38 shots for a 3-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
“It’s that time of the year; the time of the year when you may as well [play it out],” Schneider said. “If I’m feeling good then keep putting me out there. I’m fine with that. I like where my game is at and my body feels pretty good so if we’re going to make a push here then I’m up for the challenge and will be ready for whenever they need me.”
Scott Gomez scored once and Mike Cammalleri scored twice to lead the Devils to the win on the offensive side.
“I thought we deserved a better fate early on in the first couple of periods,” Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. “There were some things we wanted to stress in the game that I thought our players did well but we made a couple of mistakes and their players capitalized. We couldn’t capitalize on any of the chances we created.”
The Coyotes took 14 shots in each of the first two periods to no avail.
“You have to capitalize on chances, you have to score goals to win this game and you can’t expect your goaltender to be perfect every night,” Tippett said. “You’re not going to win a lot of hockey games [taking that approach].”
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