Anaheim Ducks retains playoff spot against Dallas Stars in OT – NHL Updates
History repeated itself on Wednesday night at the American Airlines Centre in Dallas, Texas, as Anaheim defeated Dallas Stars again in overtime by 4-3. Instead of Lubomir Visnovsky tipping it in like he did before in OT, Cam Fowler did the honours this time
around.
Dallas lost to Anaheim for the fourth time in their fifth meeting, only winning back in November. It was the second time they faced defeat to the same team earlier this month and they’ll go head to head for the last time this season on April 3.
"As hard as it is, you've got to look at the positive side of it," Stars Coach Marc Crawford said. "We played a strong game, battled, and by all rights should have won the game.”
Ray Emery and Kari Lehtonen both shutout their opposing teams during the first period, and were faced with 26 shot attempts throughout.
Emery made 23 deflections, including one that Lehtonen wasn’t able to stop during the extra five minutes.
Defenseman, Lubomir Visnovsky, seems to have good luck against Stars as he scored a hat-trick last time which led Ducks to victory and scored the inaugural goal during second period this time.
Visnovsky took advantage of the first period’s overlapping power play, flying through the Dallas defence and hooking one past Lehtonen in the opening minute.
He’s been playing amazingly well as noted by his teammates, scoring four goals in his past five games is something that is unanticipated for a defensemen.
Alex Goligoski replied nine minutes later, assisted by Mike Ribeiro, ending the second all tied up.
Both teams went back and forth during the final.
Loui Eriksson was back after missing two games due to an upper body injury. He extended their lead 4:29 in.
Corey Perry recorded his 40th of the season only 11 seconds later with a backhander off a backhanded pass from Bobby Ryan.
Trevor Daley gave Ribeiro his second assist point of the night as he made what seemed at the time a game winning goal.
Stars’ defence went into lockdown mode, trying to maintain their single point lead over Ducks.
All seemed to be going well until Teemu Selanne did what he does best and nailed an open net with seven seconds remaining to force the match into OT and the crowd back into their seats.
"You have to win, whatever you do, you got to find a way and our guys continue to reach back," said Anaheim’s coach, Randy Carlyle, whose team gained the tight playoff spot after a long stretch below the elite-eight border line.
The young Cam Fowler took a pass from Ryan during a 2-on-1 breakaway, firing it through Lehtonen from the circle, and raising Ducks above Dallas by a point in the Western Conference.
Anaheim Ducks will fly to Nashville on Thursday to face the seventh placed Predators. If they can win their fifth match in a row, they’ll take over Chicago for fifth place with 89 points.
Dallas goes up against Predators on Saturday, which will be the easiest of their upcoming three away matches since they have to face the Coyotes and Sharks after that.
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