The Ducks return to home ice tonight for a Friday night duel with a Western Conference foe, hosting the Nashville Predators at Honda Center.
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Anaheim looks to get back on track after dropping both ends of a home-then-road back-to-back this week to Washington and Utah. The Ducks rallied to tie the score in the third period of both games, but would be unable to force overtime either night - with Dylan Guenther's power-play goal ultimately proving the difference in Wednesday night's trip to Salt Lake City.
“I thought we played hard," head coach Greg Cronin said. "It’s kind of a rough turnaround. We got in wicked late that morning. I thought we battled. Obviously, Utah has a good team. They've got a lot of skilled players and I thought they made the sacrifice they needed to make to win the game. They had huge blocked shots at the end there when we finally got some pressure on them, so yeah, good credit to them.”
The Ducks are now 28-30-7 on the season, eight points back of a Western Conference playoff position.
"We're a resilient group," Cronin said. "We compete...I think they all understand what is at stake. We're trying to stay in the playoff race. It's just unfortunate that Utah got the power play goal late. But there's no moral victories at this point of the season. You've got to win.”
“We’re at that point of the season where you can count the amount of games that are left," Killorn said. "We play a lot of teams that we are trying to overcome in the standings. So there's a lot of opportunities to make some strides with our team and also in the playoff race.”
Despite the disappointing setback, a bright spot for Anaheim was on display in the crease, as the recently acquired Ville Husso made 36 saves in his Ducks debut. Recalled from AHL San Diego in the absence of the injured John Gibson, Husso remains on the NHL roster and will likely back up Lukas Dostal tonight.
“I thought he was terrific," Cronin said. "Utah was shooting a ton of pucks early. They were getting sticks onto pucks, and I thought he did a really good job smothering the shot tips they had... He hasn't played in an NHL game in a while, but he comes in and I thought he was really good.”
The Ducks now turn their attention to a Nashville squad looking to capture some late season momentum after a rough start to the campaign eliminated any postseason hopes. The Preds visit Orange County though on a four-game winning streak, including a 3-2 win over the Sharks in Tuesday's road trip opener.
"It was tough sledding,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette told NHL.com's Max Miller. “We worked really hard and they are a fast team. We probably didn't manage things very good for most of the game. The power play was big, and [Saros] was the same."
Nashille has struggled away from home ice this season, with an NHL-low eight road wins in 32 games. The Preds (25-32-7, 57 points) sit seventh in the Central Division, 14 points back of a playoff spot.
