Ducks’ power play keeps them close, then Jamie Drysdale wins it in OT

Wouldn’t it beryllium funny?

Not funny, ha-ha. But comic successful a bully way.

The Ducks’ powerfulness play past play was the worst successful NHL history, clicking astatine a woeful 8.9 percent, much of a hindrance than a assistance arsenic they sank to second-to-last spot successful the league’s wide standings. All the speech and each the enactment since past seemingly person paid disconnected successful the aboriginal days of the season.

Suddenly, the Ducks’ quality to people portion skating with the man-advantage has been their biggest spot to commencement the season. Their powerfulness play kept them successful different game, this 1 a gritty 3-2 overtime triumph implicit the Calgary Flames connected Monday nighttime astatine the Scotiabank Saddledome successful Calgary.

Overall, the Ducks are a precise credible 4 for 11 portion connected the powerfulness play to commencement 2021-22, the latest extremity coming connected Cam Fowler’s first-period strike. It took Rickard Rakell’s tying extremity successful the 3rd play portion skating astatine adjacent strength, positive an important precocious punishment kill, to unit the crippled to overtime.

Jamie Drysdale past won it 3:26 into overtime, converting connected a two-on-one interruption with Troy Terry to springiness the Ducks a 2-1-0 grounds to commencement the season.

Calgary took a 2-1 pb connected Elias Lindholm’s extremity lone 3:52 into the 2nd period, and the Flames seemed determined to instrumentality power of the crippled erstwhile Nicolas Deslauriers squared disconnected with Milan Lucic astatine halfway crystal astatine 8:26 of the mediate period. It was a momentum-changing fight.

Deslauriers earned a gully with Lucic, and though the Ducks couldn’t nutrient the equalizer, they were backmost successful the crippled and had Deslauriers to thank. They generated immoderate sustained unit astatine past and stayed wrong striking region portion down lone a extremity entering the 3rd period.

The Ducks tied the people 1-1 connected Fowler’s power-play extremity astatine 15:56 of the archetypal period, taking vantage of 1 of the much antithetic penalties you’ll ever see. Calgary uberpest Matthew Tkachuk tried his champion to accidental he’d ne'er heard of interference portion seated connected the bench.

Or standing, arsenic was the case.

The Flames’ Mikael Backlund had air-mailed a clearing effort retired of his ain zone, sending the puck implicit the Calgary seat and toward the costly seats. Tkachuk, reasoning helium could prevention his teammate from a punishment for hold of game, jumped and batted down the puck.

Well, that’s against the rules, too.

Fowler made the Flames wage with his archetypal extremity of the season, a laser past goalie Jacob Markstrom from the close wing. Kevin Shattenkirk and Troy Terry assisted. Terry’s assistance was his archetypal constituent successful his 2nd game, aft sitting retired Friday’s nonaccomplishment to the Minnesota Wild with an unwellness unrelated to COVID-19.

Blake Coleman gave the Flames a 1-0 pb astatine 7:43 of the opening period, beating John Gibson to implicit a breakaway aft the Ducks’ Hampus Lindholm fanned connected a changeable from the slot astatine the different end. It was the archetypal clip successful 3 games the absorption scored first.

Gibson returned to the Ducks’ nett aft sitting retired Friday’s nonaccomplishment to the Wild due to the fact that of an unspecified lower-body wounded suffered erstwhile helium was tally implicit by Winnipeg’s Andrew Copp during a season-opening triumph implicit the Jets past Wednesday astatine Honda Center.

More to travel connected this story.