Period 1 - Great Expecations
The Ducks looked a lot like the team that fell to the Sharks last Saturday. Missed it by that much. Maybe it was the difference between watching the game on TV versus being there live, but we seemed to be scrambling more last night than in our opener. It wasn't just a case of missing passes or fanning shots - we'd do that and then we'd seem to collectively freak out about it. While it was good to see a ratcheting of awareness, it was just as disheartening to see the boys hustling for the wrong reasons. Other than that, the first period was pretty much even. Scoreless, with the Ducks firing 7 shots and the Wild notching 10. The defense in the offensive zone was loose, and we lost the line a couple of times when it wasn't necessary. Teemu almost scored on a beautiful stutter-step breakaway, but almost doesn't cut it.
Period 2 - Our Mutual Friend
Ladies and gentlemen, this was our period. This was it. Three goals on 10 shots, absolute ownership of the puck, and a surge of forward momentum. Joffrey Lupul deflected in a bomb from Ryan Whitney that was reviewed for about .0587 seconds in case his stick was high. It wasn't. Then, as if to prove his badassery, that same Mr. Lupul proceeded to block a shot with his face.
Ducks Hockey.
Moments later, while the big line was in the midst of changing out, Getzlaf fed Perry who fired, and the ricochet was flipped into goal by... Evgeny Artyukhin? Cool. Works for me. I don't think I was quite as surprised as Artyukhin was, but a goal's a goal. And make no mistake: it was generated by hard work through hard forechecking.
Ducks Hockey.
As if that weren't enough, Saku Koivu sniped in a Power Play one-time off a feed from Ryan Whitney (currently the Ducks' scoring leader; wonder if he can keep that up?) and James Wisniewski. Not much to say about that one. It was just a well-executed Power Play.
Ducks Hockey.
Period 3 - Bleak House
Heartbreak. What was quite possibly on track to be the Wild's first regulation loss in home opener, and a shutout at that, turned into something much uglier (for the Ducks, that is). We went into "protect the lead" mode, and that allowed Minnesota the upper hand. All of the offensive power we mustered during the second period had somehow wandered over into the other bench, and we wound up watching as three goals chipped in. The first, a Power Play goal from Mikko Koivu (who won the Battle of the Koivus by a single shot, by the way) was actually very good. The second, by Petr Sykora, wasn't as pretty, but it was legitimate. The third one was another of those mystery goals. Somehow, Eric Belanger slipped the puck exactly where he needed to, and it trickled through a normally-nonexistent five hole.
Do you see a hole there? Do you see where the puck went between Jiggy's pads? I sure don't, and neither did Jiggy.
In a little more than 11 minutes, we went from protecting a three-goal lead to just trying to eke out a single point in OT.
Heartbreak.
Epilogue - Hard Times in Overtime
I'm on the record as being a James Wisniewski fan, and there are so many variables in effect during a 4-on-4 sudden death situation that I'm not about to claim that he lost us the game. Losing his head and taking a stupid roughing penalty certainly didn't help us win it, though.
We almost killed the penalty, too. Almost. But almost doesn't cut it.
And so, in summation, I really have only one question to ask: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED DURING THOSE INTERMISSIONS?
Whichever flavor of Kool-Aid the Ducks were sipping between the first and second periods was exactly right. Whatever bad mojo they found between the second and the third... well, let's just hope that they never find it again.
We get another chance at our first win tomorrow against Boston. Best of luck, boys. I'll be pulling for you. Just do that second-period thing and you'll be fine.
Until next time...
-The Raving Duck
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