ANAHEIM — John Gibson made 41 saves, and the Anaheim Ducks got their first regulation win of the season, 3-2 against the New York Rangers at Honda Center on Wednesday.
Dmitry Kulikov had a goal and an assist, and Mason McTavish and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks (6-13-1), who had lost three straight.
“We just wanted to win a hockey game, and I’ve got to steal some games every now and then,” Gibson said. “Finally, we said enough is enough and were able to get the win tonight.”
Barclay Goodrow and Braden Schneider scored for the Rangers (10-7-4), who finished their West Coast road trip 2-1-1.
“We played really well. We hit [two] goal posts,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “We had lots of opportunities, and Gibson obviously stood on his head, so I can’t fault the performance. Just disappointing we didn’t get any points out of it, but we played hard, we played well, [and] if you play like that, you’re going to win a lot of those games.”
Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves in his first start since Nov. 12. He is 0-5-1 in six starts this season.
“I’m sure he’s not happy about that second goal,” Gallant said of Halak. “He’s a veteran guy, he’s won a lot of hockey games in his career. We’ll get some wins for him.”
Artemi Panarin hit the post on a power play at 6:52 of the first period, and Gibson laid his stick flat to stop Mika Zibanejad‘s shot from crossing the goal line 19 seconds later.
Video: NYR@ANA: Gibson robs Zibanejad with a stick save
But Goodrow gave New York a 1-0 lead at 8:51. He blocked a point shot from John Klingberg and held off the defenseman as he drove to the net before scoring a five-hole.
McTavish tied it 1-1 at 9:22, knocking in the rebound of Kulikov’s point shot.
“It’s a tough league to score in,” McTavish said. “Any goal you can get, everyone’s pretty fired up.”
Kulikov then gave Anaheim a 2-1 lead 39 seconds into the second period with a wrist shot along the boards that slipped between Halak’s pads.
Terry scored with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle to extend the lead to 3-1 at 5:25.
“Those two goals were shots that you don’t necessarily think they’re super high percentage when you shoot them, but all these top teams throw everything to the net,” Terry said. “You saw that on Kulikov’s goal and then mine, same kind of thing.”
Video: NYR@ANA: Terry roofs a blistering shot in the 2nd
Gibson made a save on Kaapo Kakko‘s breakaway attempt after the forward exited the penalty box at 11:49, and Halak stopped Frank Vatrano on a short-handed breakaway at 15:14.
“I think [Gibson] is the best in the world,” Terry said. “He really is that good, and every night he gives us a chance, so you could see it in his eyes tonight. He was dialed.”
Schneider cut it to 3-2 at 18:06 with a long wrist shot through traffic. Panarin had the secondary assist, his 400th in the NHL.
“We’ve got to be less sloppy,” New York forward Vincent Trocheck said. “Those first two periods weren’t very good. We’ve been saying it for a while now, we’ve got to get a full 60 minutes out of us.”
Video: NYR@ANA: Panarin gets 400th NHL assist in 2nd period
The Ducks were outshot 17-2 in the third period and did not have a shot on goal in the final 13:46.
“The way we’ve been playing on this road trip, we wanted to close it out with a win, but we just have to build on it,” Zibanejad said.
NOTES: Panarin was playing in his 529th game, the fifth fewest needed to reach 400 assists by an undrafted player in NHL history, behind Wayne Gretzky (290), Peter Stastny (411), Bobby Orr (437) and Adam Oates (471). … Zibanejad extended his point streak to five games (one goal, four assists). … Ducks forward Adam Henrique had an assist and has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past 10 games. … Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (two goals, six assists).
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