Anaheim Ducks Weekly Round Up

Anaheim Ducks Weekly Roundup: Week of December 29th-January 4th

3-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks

The Ducks had a great 2014, made the playoffs after leading the Western Conference in points, despite a heartbreaking loss in the second round of the playoffs and the end of Teemu Selanne's illustrious career, they were able to piece it all back together and lead the league in points during the second half of the year.  On this night however it was about the down side of a season, a 3 goal loss to a rival did not represent all that the Ducks have accomplished, but it does represent a hole to dig out of that the Ducks have done on many occasions.  The Ducks had a goal taken back, several penalties called against them, and this was the night that goal scorer Corey Perry returned after 10 games missed due to a sprained knee, an emotionally draining contest for the club.  The goaltenders had a big hand in how this played out, Antti Niemi made 28 saves in a  shut out and Freddy Andersen made 26, giving up 2 goals but keeping the game from getting out of hand.  Little Joe Pavelski had a big night, scoring 2 goals including the game winner and Logan Couture sealed the deal late in the third with an empty netter.

4-3 win over St.Louis, Beleskey's career year continues

Unless you live under a rock, well actually most Americans probably don't know that Matt Beleskey is having a career year for the Anaheim Ducks this season.  Beleskey is a hard nosed grind it out type of player who does his job and can pick up some points here and there, however this season the former 4th round pick is putting his name on the score sheet more often, this night was no different as he scored the 16th goal of his season which is a career high and the game winner.  The Ducks I think just sit back and enjoy the show when they need to come back and win by one, it is their bread and butter and no leads are safe for opponents.  The scoring opened 6 minutes into the first period with a Getzlaf power play goal.  Getzy was the only player to score in the first frame, the second frame was back and forth battle, TJ Oshie would score, then Palmieri for the Ducks, then a Blues response off the stick of Kevin Shattenkirk, followed by a Ducks goal from Cogliano, responded to by a Blues power play strike from Alexander Steen.  A lot of games are called back and forth but it was literal tonight, each goal was responded with from the other team, no one scored two in a row so I guess the Ducks were lucky for it to be their turn in the third when Beleskey potted his goal and won his team the game.  Martin Brodeur is a shell of his former self, which is still good enough to play well in the NHL, he did give up 4 goals but also kept his team in the game, saving 29 out of 33 shots.  The Legend's counterpart Freddy Andersen was on fire, saving 39 out of 42 shots.  My Three stars for this game would have to be 1.Freddy Andersen 2.Martin Brodeur and 3.Matt Beleskey.

Anaheim wins in a shootout, 4-3 over Nashville

Matt Beleskey opened up the scoring in this contest by continuing his dream season, scoring his team leading 17th goal on the year.  Mattias Ekholm scored to knot up the game in the second quarter Corey Perry put the Ducks ahead once again, scoring his first goal in his 3rd game back after missing 10.  A couple of power play goals by the Predators put them ahead 3-2 to top off the 2nd period scoring outburst, Seth Jones and Craig Smith were the goal scorers and both were assisted by Mike Ribeiro and Ryan Ellis.  If the Ducks wanted to win this one it would take at least one goal to send the game to OT and multiple goals to do it in regulation.  The Duck being the team that they are they waited until the final 3 minutes of the final frame to tie the game up off the stick of Franky Beauchemin, why not score 2 when you can make the fans nervous and just send the game to OT?!  OT was the least busy frame, no scoring so the fate would be decided in a Shootout.  Ryan Kesler iced the game after converting his opportunity in the shootout and yet again a 1 goal victory for Anaheim.