Recap: Ducks Move Back Into Third in the Pacific with 4-2 Win Over Devils

ANAHEIM - With the Ducks looking mostly phenomenal at home of late, they'll now have to prove themselves up north during a critical time in their season.

Anaheim's 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils tonight at Honda Center gave the Ducks points in 12 of their last 13 home games and 16 of their last 18. But they follow that up by embarking on a crucial four-game swing through Western Canada that starts Wednesday at Calgary and could make or break their playoff hopes.
"That was definitely a better effort throughout the whole game," said Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf. "We made a couple mistakes, but overall we played pretty solid throughout the whole game and didn't allow them a whole lot. Any time you can play that complete game, it allows you to look back on different times and understand what it takes to play in the moment and do those sort of things."
Tonight's win vaulted the Ducks (37-24-12) back into third place in the Pacific Division with 86 points, two ahead of the Kings with nine games left.
Anaheim got a huge goal on the power play with 12 minutes left in the game, a beautiful cross-ice pass by Getzlaf that Brandon Montour one-timed to glory to give the Ducks a two-goal cushion. It was the fifth game-winner of the season for Montour, tying him for the franchise record for game-winning goals by a defenseman with Oleg Tverdovsky (1999-00) and Niclas Havelid (2002-03).

That goal became even more vital when New Jersey got a back door tap-in from Patrick Maroon just past the 10-minute mark of the period to make it 3-2 Anaheim. The assists went to Sami Vatanen and Stefan Noesen, who with Maroon, Kyle Palmieri and Ben Lovejoy are among the five former Ducks playing for the Devils tonight.
The Ducks regained the two-goal lead less than a minute later on a fantastic tip by Rickard Rakell that got under New Jersey goalie Keith Kinkaid, his ninth goal in the last 10 games, and the Ducks held the lead the rest of the way.

Not long after the Ducks avoided a Vatanen goal because the Devils were ruled offside before the play, they got a Getzlaf goal to go in front 1-0. The Devils failed to clear the rebound on Rakell's shot on the rush, and Getzlaf hammered the loose puck into an open net.

Those two shots were part of an 11-1 shot advantage the Ducks rolled up in the first six minutes of the game. New Jersey didn't get its second shot until 6:14 of the first, a beautiful point blank save by Ducks goalie John Gibson on Travis Zajac. In all, the Ducks held the Devils to just 17 shots on the night.
"They're a fast team," said Anaheim defenseman Hampus Lindholm. "Even though they only had 17 shots, they still had good scoring chances and scored two goals on us. They're a dangerous team, but we did a good job on them tonight."
Anaheim made it 2-0 not long after that on a beautiful tip off the stick of Jakob Silfverberg on a Josh Manson feed. Manson ultimatel left the game with a lower body injury in the second period and did not return.

"We had a great start," said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle. "We had to have a good start. That's paramount to getting things going for us in our building. We had a pretty complete game in a lot of ways. Solid first period and found ways to keep them to the outside."
New Jersey cut the lead in half halfway through the second on the power play courtesy of Kyle Palmieri, breaking a string of 34 consecutive penalty kills for the Ducks at home. Their second goal midway through the third was offset by the insurance tallies by Montour and Rakell.
"We felt like we had control of the game," Rakell said. "We had some good chances throughout the game and we didn't get negative after they scored. We kept coming after them."