In Sunrise Tuesday night, the Anaheim Ducks were left bewildered and befuddled as the Florida Panthers got goals from six different skaters en route to a 6-2 shelling.
First star of the game, Jonathan Huberdeau, had three assists for the Panthers.
“I guess we like playing against them,” Huberdeau said. “They’re a really good team, 
but I guess we come out hard. I think we played overall a really good game and we’ve just got to continue playing like that.”
Dave Bolland, Dmitry Kulikov, Nick Bjugstad, Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov, and Jimmy Hayes scored for Florida in a lopsided win that had the Ducks chasing after shadows.
“All guys contributed tonight,” Bjugstad said. “It was a fun game to be a part of. Everyone was scoring and making plays. I don’t know if we really expected that kind of game again. Obviously we played them early in the year and kind of did the same thing. I don’t know if we match up kind of well against them. It worked out tonight.”
Roberto Luongo made 28 saves in the win but wishes he had one more in the sheet.
Tim Jackman sent a bouncing knuckleball on the Panthers’ goalie who misplayed it for a goal for the Ducks.
“They happen,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “I’m glad it happened at the right time when we got six goals. That’s the good thing about it.”
The Ducks were out of their game for 60 minutes and never had a chance in this match.
“[I’m] very concerned,” captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “It’s unlike our group and we can’t accept that. We can’t be giving up those kind of scoring chances, leaving our goalies out to dry, back-door tap-ins every time. It’s something we’ve got to address.
“We’ve proven we can play. There’s no big mystery to it, we’ve just got to play hockey. When you’ve got a team that’s played as well as we have in the past, you know what’s in here, so that’s the most frustrating part.”
Ilya Bryzgalov yielded three goals on just eight shots.
“I’d said that if they’d scored early in the second period, no matter what kind of goal it was, I was going to pull him (to) try to spark the team,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “You get down 3-0, you’ve got to try different things, right? I don’t think there was much he could do on the third goal. … but at the same time I thought the first two goals were stoppable.”
John Gibson finished the game with 15 saves on 18 shots.
The Ducks trail the Nashville Predators by three points in the conference race.
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