Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice and Spencer Knight notched his first career NHL shutout, guiding the Florida Panthers to a 3-0 win over the Ducks tonight at Honda Center.
The loss pushed Anaheim’s winless streak to a season-high six games (0-4-2). The Ducks are now 27-26-11 (65 points) on the season, sixth in the Pacific Division.
“It was a hard hockey game,” Troy Terry said. “I’ll give them credit. They’re a good hockey team. There’s a reason they are where they are. We just gave them all too much respect. I don’t know if that’s what it was, but I felt like we didn’t execute on plays and we didn’t move the puck effectively. When you’re doing that, you’re kind of fighting in, and you’ve got a team that can make plays, it’s hard to create anything offensively.”
“There were times I thought we were connected and there were times we were not connected,” head coach Dallas Eakins added. “With where we’re at right now, everybody in our lineup has to be playing at 100 percent, especially against a team like that. We’ve got some guys in our lineup that have taken on massive roles, guys who weren’t in our lineup before, whether they were in San Diego or in and out of our lineup. This is a massive, massive challenge, especially when you’re playing arguably the best team in the league.”
John Gibson stopped 39-of-42 shots in his 45th start.
Huberdeau, the NHL leader in assists, scored his 20th and 21st goals of the season in the first period, providing all the offense his rookie netminder would need. Knight, a 20-year-old Connecticut native, stopped all 17 shots he faced, becoming the youngest goalie in the NHL to record a shutout this season.
Longtime San Jose forward Joe Thornton also scored for Florida. Thornton is second among active players in career scoring against Anaheim (19-57=76), one point behind Anze Kopitar.
The Ducks learned quickly why the Panthers’ offense has run roughshod over the rest of the league as Florida outshot Anaheim 19-4 in the opening frame and took a 2-0 lead on a consecutive goals by Huberdeau.
Despite what would become an early lead, the night got off to a disatrous start for Florida when defenseman Aaron Ekblad collided awkwardly with teammate Aleksander Barkov while attempting to check Cam Fowler along the boards. Ekblad crawled to the Florida bench, seemingly unable to put any weight on his right leg, and did not return.
Ekblad, a former number one pick, leads Panthers defenseman in nearly every major statistical category, including points (57), goals (15), assists (42), plus/minus (+38) and average ice time (25:19).
The first period also saw plenty of intensity and a little animosity. The teams first gathered for a friendly chat after Panthers forward Mason Marchment was flagged for goaltender interference when he crashed into Gibson off the rush.
Moments later, Florida defenseman Radko Gudas left his feet in an attempt to hit Simon Benoit along the boards and was promptly introduced to Nicolas Deslauriers, who made quick and easy work of Gudas after dropping the gloves.
Huberdeau put Florida ahead with six minutes to go in the first, beating Gibson on a one-timer from the slot, and then doubled the lead with seven seconds left on a similar looking play, taking advantage of a Ducks defensive zone breakdown.
The Ducks nearly got right back in the game early in the middle frame on a Derek Grant and Max Comtois 2-on-1 rush, but Comtois couldn’t convert Grant’s backdoor pass as his bid trickled just wide of the net.
The Panthers, as they’ve done to much of their competition throughout the season, quickly made the Ducks pay for the missed opportunity, with Thornton swatting home a rebound from the side of the net to put the visitors ahead by three.
That would be more than enough for Knight, who shut down a few quality Anaheim scoring chances in the third en route to the shutout and his 16th career win.
Anaheim continues its three-game homestand Monday against Nashville.