ANAHEIM — Returning from a four-day Christmas break, the Ducks hosted the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday for a matinee that would’ve made more sense on Halloween.
From festive to frightening, the first match of a three-game Ducks homestand was defined by spooky moments that players on both sides could not see until it was too late.
With orange and black the order of the day at the Honda Center, the Ducks lost 3-1 to the sixth-place team in the Metropolitan Division which had lost four of five coming in.
Following a scoreless first period, Philadelphia broke through when Bobby Brink skated into the Ducks zone from the blue line, circled behind the net and found winger Noah Cates in front of the net for a simple finish at 4:03 of the middle period.
Cates’ fifth straight game with a goal, good for seven on the season, came when he elevated the puck over goalkeeper Lukas Dostal, who was sprawled face down in the crease after reacting to a potential wraparound shot thanks to Brink’s industriousness with the puck.
The Ducks (13-17-4) tied it 1-1 at 15:38 with a Troy Terry wrister between the legs of Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim.
Standing alone at the blue line, Terry received the puck on a long pass across the neutral zone, giving him an angle to go at Flyers goalkeeper Samuel Ersson.
The visiting Swedish netminder didn’t have much of a chance as his view was obstructed from Terry’s attempt at the moment Ducks center Mason McTavish skated into his line of sight.
“We were playing well,” Terry said. “Obviously, you take a break, maybe your execution is a little off. Overall, it’s why it’s frustrating. I don’t think we played bad tonight. I thought we were structurally good. I don’t feel like we gave them a lot either.”
Terry’s goal, his 10th of the season, held up until 5:57 of the third period when Philadelphia forward Morgan Frost again made the Ducks pay from behind their own net.
Starting in the Flyer’s zone, Scott Laughton pushed the puck ahead to Brink, who moved into the Ducks end of the ice and skated past a defender along the boards.
Cutting back a pass in search of a teammate in the slot, Brink’s effort caromed off the inside of Dostal’s stick and snuck inside the upper corner for a 2-1 Philadelphia lead.
“We were encouraging our guys to shoot the puck from every angle,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said. “Ironically they scored from below the goal line on a shot.”
The visitors, now 16-16-4, made it 3-1 at 17:40 once the Ducks failed to convert on their fourth power play of the afternoon — making them 1 for their last 23 with a man advantage.
The Ducks rank 31st out of 32 teams in power-play conversion and are last in goals scored and goals per game.
“I thought tonight we had some decent looks but we’ve just been having a hard time scoring goals,” Cronin said. “It’s not just the power-play. It’s 5-on-5, too. It’s been going on all year. So the only way you can solve that is you just gotta be a high-shot volume team and jam the net for garbage goals.
“That’s probably gonna be the way we’ve gotta go the next 48 games.”
They could benefit from gifts like the Flyers got to seal the game.
After serving a two-minute minor for too many men on the ice, forward Joel Farabee hopped on as the action returned to full strength. Farabee snuck up on Olen Zellweger, who received a pass from Terry and was working the point at the Ducks’ blue line, before finishing his fifth goal of the year against an empty net.
“I just put him in a bad spot because the guy is coming out of the box,” Terry said. “Maybe just having a little more awareness, all together, especially me there.”
When Dostal was working between the pipes, he saved 22 of 24 shots. His counterpart, Ersson, was strong for three periods, denying 32 of the Ducks’ 33 shots on goal.
“He made some key saves in the second period,” Flyers head coach John Tortorella said about his goalkeeper. “I thought he played really well.”
The orange-and-black clash was the first meeting between the two since a trade in January that sent Jamie Drysdale to Philadelphia in exchange for rookie Cutter Gauthier, the No. 5 selection overall in 2022, plus a second-round pick in 2025.
Gauthier, who said he circled this meeting on his calendar before the season, took two shots on goal in 13:19 of ice time, and was called for an early first-period penalty.
Selected sixth overall in 2020, Drysdale played 123 NHL games for the Ducks. He saw just over 17 minutes against his old team.
The Ducks visit Philadelphia on Jan. 11.
“Anaheim has some sneaky skill,” Tortorella said. “know the numbers aren’t good but they’ve got some good skill on that team.”
Losers in three of their last four games, the Ducks face a quick turnaround, welcoming the Edmonton Oilers to the Honda Center for another mid-day contest on Sunday.
