ANAHEIM, Calif. – Once the Anaheim Ducks wiped out a four-goal deficit, all the stress shifted to the visiting Winnipeg Jets.
Stephane Robidas scored 16 seconds into overtime, and the Ducks staged the biggest comeback in team history by rallying from four goals down to beat the Jets 5-4 on Monday night.
“You’re down 4-0 and you come back 4-4, now the pressure is on the other team because they gave up the lead,” Robidas said. “We just tried to play our game, and I got lucky and it went in.”
Andrew Cogliano and Luca Sbisa assisted on Robidas’ fifth goal of the season. Anaheim outshot the Jets 25-6 in the third period and outscored them 3-0 to force overtime.
Corey Perry tied it 4-4 with 22.7 seconds remaining in regulation, scoring his 39th goal after Anaheim pulled rookie goalie Frederik Andersen for an extra skater.
“If I’m going to the net and crashing around the blue paint, that’s where I’m effective,” Perry said. “If I’m not doing that, I’m not playing my game.”
Nick Bonino cut the Ducks’ deficit to 4-1 in the second period, and Ryan Getzlaf and Hampus Lindholm scored in the third to set up Perry’s heroics. Andersen (18-5) stopped 32 shots.
The Ducks (49-18-8) established a franchise record for most wins in a season.
“When you always believe you can win, you’re never out of the game,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I think that was what happened. We were so vastly outplayed in the first 35 minutes of the game.
“When Nick Bonino scored and Freddie Andersen made the big save 20 seconds later, we thought if we could get another one, you never know.”
The Ducks never stopped attacking.
“We didn’t get a great start,” Perry said. “We said if we keep pushing and playing that style we established in the second half of the second period, no team can play with us. That’s the way we’ve got to keep playing.”
The Jets struggled to put into words what happened in their collapse.
“You’re just awfully disappointed because you liked so much of what you saw, and then to have it go away … it’s just frustrating,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said.
Defenceman Mark Stuart echoed that sentiment in just as few words as Maurice.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot to say right now. It’s shock after a game like that.”
Anaheim remained atop of the Pacific Division, three points ahead of idle San Jose with a game in hand. The Ducks trail Western Conference-leading St. Louis by one point.
Jacob Trouba, Matt Halischuk, Blake Wheeler and Eric Tangradi scored for Winnipeg, which is last in the Central Division. The Jets are 1-2-1 on their road trip that ends Tuesday at Phoenix.
Winnipeg took a 1-0 lead on Trouba’s ninth goal of the season 8:48 in. Bryan Little earned an assist to extend his point streak to six games.
Later in the period, Winnipeg took advantage of a Ducks mistake in their zone and made it 2-0. Halischuk scored his fifth of the season at 13:39.
Winnipeg dominated play in the first period and outshot the Ducks 19-4 and had a 31-11 edge in shots after two periods.
The Jets increased their lead to 3-0 just 33 seconds into the second on a power-play goal by Wheeler, Winnipeg’s goal leader with 27.
The Jets have scored five power-play goals the past five games.
Tangradi added Winnipeg’s fourth goal of the game, from Zach Redmond and Anthony Peluso, midway through the second period.
“It wasn’t pretty. They were all over us,” Robidas said. “You have to give them credit because they came out hard. We didn’t really show up in the first period. It’s a lesson learned. We need to move on now.”
Bonino’s 20th of the season brought the Ducks within 4-1 with 2:16 left in the second.
Getzlaf added a power-play goal, his 31st tally of the season, at 3:06 of the third, and Lindholm made it 4-3 just 1:13 later.
Patrick Maroon had two assists for the Ducks.
Teemu Selanne, who began his NHL career and scored 147 goals with the original Winnipeg Jets, played his final game against the new Jets franchise that relocated to Winnipeg from Atlanta in 2011. Selanne has scored 684 career goals.
NOTES: The Ducks opened a three-game homestand and will play four of their remaining seven games at home. … Getzlaf returned to action after leaving Saturday’s game against Vancouver after blocking a shot and injuring his lower leg. … The Jets snapped the Ducks’ home unbeaten-in-regulation streak (20-0-2) with a 3-2 win in Anaheim on Jan. 21. … Anaheim’s Mathieu Perreault had an assist to extend his point streak to nine games.
Comments