OC Register: What you need to know: Ducks wrap up regular season with Pacific Division ribbon

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM – Here’s what you need to know about the Ducks’ 4-3 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night:

THE GAME IN 140 OR LESS

– Late heroics in regulation and overtime helped the Ducks rally past their game rival from up the interstate and win another division title.

THE QUOTE

– “It was exciting. … We’ve won a few here and we don’t get too excited anymore. We’ve come back a long way. We deserve where we are. We wanted to win to finish the season on the right note. That is what it came down to.” – Ducks left wing Andrew Cogliano, on winning the Pacific Division

THE PLAYER

– Ryan Getzlaf. A team-leading four blocked shots on defense and three assists on offense. His 58 assists were third in the NHL behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom. And his team-leading 73 points put him 13th in league scoring.

THE MOMENT

– Shea Theodore scored his first winning goal in overtime after Rickard Rakell sent him in all alone on Kings goalie Jonathan Quick with a flick of a pass into the offensive zone. Rakell won a race to the puck after Ryan Getzlaf intentionally batted it forward in a faceoff with Kings winger Tanner Pearson.

THE THOUGHT

– When the teams met in a home-and-home last week, you got the distinct feeling that it wouldn’t be the final games between the Ducks and Calgary Flames this season. And they will indeed meet again with something a lot more at stake, beginning with Game 1 Thursday at Honda Center. The Ducks should be pleased with that scenario and it isn’t only about the 25-game regular-season winning streak they’ve held over the Flames there. But that is part of it. Calgary couldn’t win in any of the three games it played in Anaheim during the 2015 Western Conference semifinals – a series the Ducks won in five games. It hasn’t won in the building since Game 3 of a first-round matchup in 2006, and while the Honda Center crowd have been disappointing in the second half of the season – Thursday’s game against Chicago and Sunday’s season finale against the Kings did not sell out – the atmosphere figures to be far more inhospitable as Ducks fans responded to Mark Giordano’s damaging knee-on-knee hit to Cam Fowler with a hearty “You Can’t Win Here” chant. But the bigger thing is it’s a bad matchup for the Flames and a great one for the Ducks. Mikael Backlund has had a great season, but is he Ryan Kesler? Sean Monahan is an impact No. 1 center, but is he Ryan Getzlaf? Calgary has puck wizard Johnny Gaudreau, but the Ducks now have a skilled sorcerer in Rickard Rakell. John Gibson has already returned to peak form after an injury and he’ll have something to prove as far as getting the job done in the postseason. And they just beat them in back-to-back games without Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen on their blue line. There was a reason the Ducks wanted to win the Pacific Division. This matchup was it.

THE TREND

– The Ducks ended the regular season with six straight wins at Honda Center and a 29-8-4 overall home record. Only Washington and Pittsburgh had more wins at home.

THE NEWS

– Patrick Eaves left the game in second period after suffering an upper-body injury on what Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said was the result of a cross check. Carlyle said Eaves was “fine” after the game.

– Hampus Lindholm got back in the lineup after sitting out three games because of an upper-body injury.

– Nick Ritchie served the first of his two-game suspension for punching Chicago’s Michal Rozsival last week. Ritchie will also have to sit out Game 1 against Calgary on Thursday.

– Nate Thompson was back in action after sitting out Thursday’s game against Chicago due to an upper-body injury.

THE DRESSING ROOM

– “Playoffs are a different animal. Everybody starts at zero. And that’s where we’re going to have to start at. We’re going to have to earn everything that we get. I would expect Calgary’s going to have a few surprises. It won’t be the same hockey club that we played the last two times here. That’s why playoffs are very unique and special. There’s always an opportunity for some unsung heroes to step to the forefront. I’m sure they’re going to be looking for some people within their group as we are with ours.” – Randy Carlyle

– “We’ll start that tomorrow. Tonight, you just got to take a step back now and just relax. Understand what’s in front of us and how much physically, mentally goes into the playoffs. I think tonight you just relax and start our preparation tomorrow.” – Ryan Getzlaf

– “Obviously it’s been a great year. I’ve really enjoyed playing for this team. But we obviously know that we have a great team. So I think we come in there every night and we feel confident we can win against any team.” – Jonathan Bernier

– “The most unfortunate thing in all that was we lost our best d-man. But this playoffs are a different animal in terms of it’s over. We need to play hard and we need to get on the forecheck and play a strong game. It’s all about winning now.” – Andrew Cogliano

– “We hung in there, I’ve said that lots. We didn’t score enough goals this year. We were 20-25 goals off the last few years. We didn’t have enough goal scorers in our lineup.” – Darryl Sutter

THE KEY STATS

– Rickard Rakell misfired on six of his 10 shots attempts but had two assists in 17:37.

– Jonathan Bernier won his 21st game of the season, stopping 15 of 18 shots.

– Chris Wagner played 15:31 and had a team-leading five hits.

– Nate Thompson scored his first goal of the season and won six of eight faceoffs.

– Ryan Kesler won 10 of 17 draws and had two shots on goal in just 15:53.

– Hampus Lindholm played a team-high 22:15 and had an assist.

– Antoine Vermette had three shots, won six of 11 faceoffs and had a power-play goal.

– The Ducks had a 60-50 edge in shot attempts, with the Kings putting only 18 of theirs on net.

– Kings right wing Jarome Iginla had an assist for his 1,300th career point.

– Dustin Brown had three shots on goal and scored his 14th of the season in 14:47.

– Jeff Carter did not have a shot on goal and lost 12 of 16 faceoffs.

– Kings defenseman Kevin Gravel had an assist and a team-leading five shots in 17:26.

– Kyle Clifford had two takeaways and scored on his only shot on goal.

– Drew Doughty played a game-high 25:01, had a team-leading four shots and scored his 12th goal.

THE RECORD

– 46-23-13 (29-8-4 at home, 17-15-9 on road), won the Pacific Division

THE NEXT ONE

– The Ducks play the Calgary Flames in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals on Thursday at Honda Center at 7:30 p.m.

 

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