ANAHEIM — The Ducks made a commitment to Frank Vatrano on Sunday morning and he rewarded them on Sunday evening, pouring in three points during a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Honda Center.
It was the Ducks’ fourth win in their past five games, and yet another over a quality opponent. Tampa Bay remained on track to make the playoffs for the 12th straight season, and it has won two Stanley Cups and four Eastern Conference crowns during that run. That didn’t stop them, however, from losing to both Southern California franchises in the span of 23 hours.
Vatrano assisted on Troy Terry’s goal and scored two of his own. Jackson LaCombe also found the back of the net and Ryan Strome contributed two assists. John Gibson repelled 36 of 37 shots he faced to earn his 200th career victory.
Jake Guentzel tallied the solitary Tampa Bay goal while backup goalie Jonas Johansson made 22 of 25 saves.
Vatrano’s impact was instantaneous in a first period during which the Ducks recorded the first eight shots on net. He picked up an assist on Terry’s goal 5:24 into the game, took a penalty at 13:45 that led to a flawless penalty kill and then scored a goal with 2:57 displayed on the first-period clock. Behind all that, the Ducks held a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
Off a set breakout, Vatrano’s outlet pass sprung Strome, who strode ahead before delivering a drop pass to Terry. Terry sold a pass to Vatrano, who was on his left, with his eyes, but delivered a short-side snipe to his right for his team-topping 14th goal of 2024-25.
After Vatrano was exiled briefly for holding Darren Raddysh’s stick, the Ducks’ PK went to work and it worked diligently. The Lightning did not muster a single shot on goal and Brian Dumoulin was as tight to Nikita Kucherov as a pair of extra-small yoga pants.
Vatrano extended the Ducks’ edge to two goals when he tipped the shot of Jacob Trouba, with whom he was also a teammate as a member of the New York Rangers, past Johansson. It was Vatrano’s 10th goal of the year but his first in nine games.
In the second period, Tampa Bay earned a second power play, and this time their big guns fired at will to halve the Lightning’s deficit as the match’s midpoint loomed. Kucherov had plenty of space this time, drifting above the right circle to slide a pass below the dot to Guentzel, who placed his one-timer precisely to make it 2-1.
The Ducks responded with some near misses as Olen Zellweger struck Johansson’s mask with a shot, Brett Leason dinged the left post with a close-range bid and Terry generated a partial breakaway that Johnasson narrowly denied with his blocker. The score, however, remained 2-1 after 40 minutes.
Tampa Bay out-shot the Ducks 18-8 in the second period but dealt with the aforementioned pushback. In the third, the Ducks spent 20 minutes on the ropes –– they were being out-shot 8-1 at one point and getting trampled analytically –– with scoring chances few and far between for 15 minutes.
In the final five minutes, Terry had another partial breakaway and a redirection attempt that went just wide.
That got the stone of fate rolling back in the Ducks’ favor, and they cemented their victory when Alex Killorn’s saucer pass to LaCombe allowed him to finish a two-on-one, score his eighth goal of the season and cushion the hosts’ lead to 3-1 with 3:34 remaining.
With 92 seconds to play, Vatrano would seal the Lightning’s fate, fittingly, in a display of unselfishness with his close friend Strome. Vatrano tried to pass off the free tally to Strome, who sent the puck right back to him for a more poetic finale.
