ANAHEIM — Less than 24 hours after losing to the Kings in a shootout at Crypto.com Arena, the Ducks were poised to help their rivals by sweeping a three-game season series against the Nashville Predators.
After falling to the Ducks twice in Tennessee, the visitors were four points back of the Kings, second in the Western Conference Wild Card race, entering Sunday’s tilt at the Honda Center.
After the early evening contest, a 4-2 defeat for the Ducks, that gap shrunk to two points thanks to Nashville’s fifth regulation-time victory on a five-game road trip.
“That’s a game we could’ve won,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said. “I told the team, we played them two other times and we probably played them better this game than the other two and we won them.”
Another stout and stingy effort by the Predators produced goals from Roman Josi in the second period and three in the third from Filip Forsberg, Michael McCarron and an empty-net finish for Gustav Nyquist, which was enough to offset Ducks’ lamp-lighters courtesy of Isac Lundestrom and Brett Leason.
Playing the second game of a back-to-back (Nashville beat San Jose 4-2 on Saturday), neither group appeared to suffer on the ice until the Ducks succumbed to the Predators’ physicality in the third period.
The opening 20 minutes featured heavy, sharp skating, a fight at center ice between Ducks’ center Sam Carrick and Nashville defenseman Jeremy Lauzon, but no goals.
Nashville didn’t waste time getting on the board following the first intermission, grabbing the lead a minute in when Josi connected on his 12th goal in 59 games.
A straightaway slap shot from just inside the blue line by the Predators’ defenseman zoomed over the glove of Ducks’ goaltender Lukas Dostal, who got the start the day after John Gibson’s 48-save performance against the Kings.
The 33-year-old Swiss defender scored his first career NHL goal on Dec. 10, 2011 versus Anaheim and has 27 points in 33 career…
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