ANAHEIM, Calif. – Over the last couple of seasons, meetings between the Arizona Coyotes and the Anaheim Ducks have become wrought with more ferocity and aggression. Much of this spawned from a game during the 2021-22 season when Jay Beagle went to town on Troy Terry’s face after the latter came to the aid of Trevor Zegras. The latest edition of the matchup between these two former division foes wasn’t any different.
The Ducks jumped out to a quick lead just four minutes in thanks to a snipe from the right circle by Terry on the power play. The winger would get his second goal of the game––also on the power play––nearly six minutes later, cleaning up defenseman Pavel Mintyukov’s effort, which rang off the post.
Mintyukov made the entire play, knocking Matt Dumba off the puck in the neutral zone with a body check before driving up the middle of the ice and dropping a pass off to Cam Fowler just after entering the offensive zone. He opened up to receive a pass from Fowler and his backhand effort beat Karel Vejmelka but not the metal pipes behind him.
For a team that ranks in the bottom half of the league in both power play percentage and penalty kill percentage, it was a sight for weary eyes with Ducks head coach Greg Cronin that his team was able to score two on the man advantage while keeping Arizona quiet on their power play.
“I thought our power play was opportunistic,” said Cronin. “I thought our penalty kill was really good. I thought there was more of a dictation on how we were killing (penalties), and where the shots were coming from. We had some good clears as well––which bit us before. It was a good special teams night.”
While Anaheim held a two-goal advantage midway through the first, that lead didn’t last long. Lawson Crouse and Logan Cooley scored within three minutes of each other to even the score with five minutes remaining in the period. Cooley’s goal was the first of his NHL career.
Cronin had emphasized the speed of the Coyotes prior to tonight’s game and how that makes them such a dangerous team. He echoed some of those thoughts after the game as well: “With the way they play, if you’re not sharp and you’re not skating, they’re going to get quality chances and they scored on two of them in the first period and we’re lucky there wasn’t more.”
Crouse would get his second of the game and give the Coyotes their first––and only––lead of the game in the second period after converting on a rebound. Arizona scored three unanswered goals after Anaheim had raced out to a 2-0 lead.
Terry, looking for his third goal of the game, had his shot deflect off Leo Carlsson and past Vejmelka to tie the game four minutes into the third period. It was Carlsson’s third goal in six games this season.
“He’s an all-world player already,” said Terry of Carlsson. “What I’ve learned about him is he expects himself to dominate every game and be that elite player. Something that I had to learn is this league is hard, some nights you’re going to have to find (out how to get things done and) do it in other ways and I think he’s already starting to do that.”
Mason McTavish extended his point streak to six games in astounding fashion, shaking off a forechecking Nick Schmaltz in overtime with a hesitation move and opening up space for a 2-on-1 with Terry. His pass to the Denver Pioneer was perfect and Terry made no mistake to seal his hat trick and win the game. It was Terry’s second-career hat trick and the first four-point game of his career.
After securing their fourth third period comeback win of the season, Anaheim is now on a five-game winning streak.
The Ducks are now off until Sunday when they’ll face off at home against the Vegas Golden Knights in a rematch of Anaheim’s season opener last month.
