On the heels of a 3-2 shootout win on Friday night, the Anaheim Ducks have now won six straight games and are off to a 6-1-0 start on the young season, their best in franchise history. For a team that didn’t look too good in an opening night loss to Colorado, they’ve quickly rebounded and are looking every bit the part of the defending Pacific Division champions.
The ageless Teemu Selanne put on a quite a show, scoring in regulation (his 450th goal as a Duck) and later beating goalie Mike Smith again during the shootout.
Anaheim netminder Viktor Fasth was announced as injured earlier in the day, but Bruce Boudreau shouldn’t be too concerned at the moment. Jonas Hiller remains undefeated this season, now holding a 4-0-0 record with a 1.45 goals against average and .954 save percentage.
Here’s some quotes collected from both locker rooms immediately following the action on the ice…
Nick Bonino on his game-tying goal:
“Usually, I get to that spot, backing up the D on those faceoffs, and I’m just going to rim it down the boards. But, I had an extra second and I knew Penner was stationed in front. I just tried to put it in front.”
Jakob Silfverberg on the Ducks’ early success:
“Today maybe wasn’t our best game again, but we played really good defensively, and we didn’t give up too many chances. We have great goaltending, and that’s been taking us to a couple wins in the last couple games.”
Coach Bruce Boudreau on the overall game:
“I thought it was a good hockey game. It’s two teams that have played against each other for a while. We know how tough they are, and they know how tough we are. We got a lucky goal and continued to fight. I thought we had a lot of really good chances.”
Mike Smith on the Coyotes performance late in the third period:
“We were scared to win. That is not how you finish off hockey games. We were solid up until that point but we went out in the third period and had six shots and let them come. When you give that team the chances that we gave them, sooner or later it’s going to get the back of the net. It ended up being a fluky one but we iced the puck 6 to 7 times in the third and we just weren’t making plays. We stopped playing the game. We could feel it coming and once it came, we couldn’t stop it. That’s where we need guys to be able to calm it down and make plays like we did all game because we played pretty solid.”
Shane Doan on the Coyotes performance late in the third period:
“We weren’t playing scared, but we didn’t play as well once we had the lead. They obviously picked up their intensity a little bit more when they were down one. We stopped making as many plays as we had made prior to that. We gave them more opportunities and that happens. It makes for a little bit longer last 10 minutes.”
Coach Dave Tippett on the overall game:
“I thought we played a solid road game. Both teams had a few chances but we hung around the game and gave ourselves a chance to win and that is what you want to do. Anaheim has been playing very well and we wanted to come in and play a solid game. For the most part, we did that.”
Special reminder – we’ll be back broadcasting live from the Honda Center on Sunday night with another edition of West Coast Bias, airing live on NHL Network Radio. We’ll talk about all the latest happenings in the Western Conference, plus we’ll chat it up with a few guests – including Garry Galley.
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About John Hoven
Wow smith deflecting all the blame? That tying goal was just hilarious and him biting and dropping his glove down on the first move every analslime shooter made in the SO was just great! Does this guy ever take the blame? What a joke he is.