NEWARK, N.J. – It was deja vu all over again for the Anaheim Ducks on the other side of the Hudson River, as another slow start doomed the visitors on this ill-fated east coast road trip.
Anaheim trailed 2-0 after a lackluster first period, and despite keeping New Jersey within arm’s reach and scoring midway through the third, the Devils held serve and held the game, 4-1, on Thursday at Prudential Center.
The Ducks (4-6-0, eight points) have lost their fifth straight game and all three games to open this four-game road trip. Anaheim led after the first period in its first seven games of the season, but the Ducks have not led once in these three road games.“Obviously, losing isn't fun,” Jackson LaCombe said to local media, “but I think our compete got better throughout the game. We got to start the game moving our feet like that. As a group, we have to make that decision. It's frustrating."
Tim Washe scored on a deflection of LaCombe’s third-period point shot with just under 12 minutes remaining to cut the lead to 2-1, but Anaheim generated just three shots on goal down the stretch.
Arseny Gritsyuk scored in his fourth straight game, and Nico Hischier scored on a power play in the final minute of the first period for that 2-0 New Jersey lead. Anthony Mantha scored the Devils’ third goal–all from right on top of the crease–to answer Washe’s tip in, and Jack Hughes iced the game with an empty netter.
“We competed a lot better for sure, but it can't be a 20 minute thing,” LaCombe said. “It's got to be the whole game. We keep leaving our goalies out to dry, too. We've got to help them out a lot more."
Ville Husso stopped 25 of 28 shots in his third start for Anaheim. Nico Daws made 16 saves for the Devils.
Anaheim concludes its four-game East Coast road trip with an emotional spark plug in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon. The Ducks return home to host the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.
"We're a little bit out of sorts,” Joel Quenneville said, “but it still felt like we had way more battle than we had the last couple of games tonight."Anaheim was forced to make another set of line-up changes entering Thursday, as defenseman Pavel Mintyukov returned to Orange County with a lower-body injury (day-to-day) and forward Jeff Malott was out due to illness.
The Ducks were already without forward Judd Caulfield (returned to SoCal for birth of his child), center Ryan Poehling (6-8 weeks, MCL strain), defenseman Ian Moore (injured reserve, lower-body injury) and forward Troy Terry still out at least a month recovering from offseason hip surgery.“We got to be better than we are,” Quenneville said. “We're missing some guys. Some important guys that are not in our line up. We're missing a little bit of that, whether it's bite, whether it's experience..."