cutter gauthier

Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke each had a goal and an assist, goalie Lukas Dostal made 32 saves and the Ducks beat the New Jersey Devils 4-1 on Sunday night.

Frank Vatrano and Chris Kreider also scored for the Ducks.

Jack Hughes scored New Jersey’s lone goal in the third period, and Devils goalie Jake Allen had 26 saves.

The Ducks have won three straight and five of their last six to move into a first-place tie with Las Vegas and Edmonton in the Pacific Division, an encouraging start for a team trying to snap a seven-season playoff drought. Their 15 points is the most through 11 games since 2014-2015.

The Ducks took advantage of their second straight game against a road-weary Eastern Conference club, outscoring the Detroit Red Wings and Devils by a combined 9-3.

Anaheim scored three goals within the game’s first 22 minutes and dominated the first two periods before New Jersey came to life in the third.

Moments after Allen stuffed Sennecke at the doorstep, Hughes took a pass from Dawson Mercer on a two-on-one break and one-timed a shot past a sprawling Dostal.

But Dostal and the Ducks held off a furious Devils rally in the final minutes, and Kreider scored on an empty netter with 1:54 left to seal the win.

Anaheim scored on its first shot of the game. Sennecke took a pass from Gauthier as he crossed the blue line, shielded New Jersey defenseman Dennis Cholowski with his body as he charged the net and slipped a lunging shot under Allen’s right armpit.

The Ducks made it 3-0 just 1:54 into the second period when Gauthier scored from an almost impossible angle, snapping a left-handed wrist shot from just inside the right goal line under Allen’s left pad for his team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Up next for the Ducks: vs. the Florida Panthers at Honda Center on Tuesday night.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Troy Terry and Mason McTavish scored in a shootout, and the Ducks beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Leo Carlsson had a goal and an assist, and Cutter Gauthier also scored to help the Ducks end a five-game trip with a victory in coach Joel Quenneville’s first game against his former team.

Quenneville, who coached the Panthers from 2019-21, returned to Sunrise for the first time since resigning as Florida’s coach after details of a sexual-assault scandal involving his 2010 Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks squad were revealed in October 2021.

Quenneville was banned from the NHL for nearly three years for his handling of the situation before taking over the Ducks in May. He won three titles in 10 years with the Blackhawks and last coached for Florida on Oct. 27, 2021.

Carlsson buried a short-handed goal midway through the second period to extend his point streak to four games. He assisted on Gauthier’s power-play goal a couple of minutes later to give Carlsson a team-leading 11 points this season.

Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots for the Ducks.

Anton Lundell and Sam Reinhart scored for the Panthers. Reinhart had the tying goal — his fifth of the season — with three about minutes left in regulation after the Panthers had trailed 2-0 midway through the third.

Daniil Tarasov made 15 saves.

The Panthers, whose depth has already been tested this season because of a rash of injuries, were without forwards Jonah Gadjovich (upper body) and Brad Marchand (personal reasons).

Chris Kreider scored his second power-play goal in his home debut with 1:27 to play, and the Ducks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Tuesday night for its 10th consecutive victory in home openers.

Cutter Gauthier and Drew Helleson also scored and Lukas Dostal made 23 saves for the Ducks, who matched Boston and Toronto for the NHL’s longest active victory streak in home openers.

Kreider, who also had an assist, is off to an outstanding start with four goals in three games for the Ducks after the Rangers traded their longtime left winger last June to create cap space.

Kreider scored the Ducks’ first goal off a slick pass from Leo Carlsson in the first period, and he won it for the Ducks just seven seconds after Parker Wotherspoon went to the penalty box for shooting the puck over the glass.

Justin Brazeau, Rickard Rakell and Anthony Mantha scored and Tristan Jarry stopped 17 shots as Pittsburgh opened a three-game California trip.

Sidney Crosby had two assists to pass Steve Yzerman, one of his boyhood idols, for the ninth-most in NHL history.

The Ducks had the largest crowd in franchise history for the home debut of coach Joel Quenneville, who got loud cheers when introduced. The second-winningest coach in NHL history opened his Ducks tenure with a loss and a win on the road last week.

Brazeau extended his impressive start to his Penguins tenure just 63 seconds after the opening faceoff, redirecting Ryan Shea’s point shot for his fourth goal in four games. Evgeni Malkin also got his sixth assist of the season.

Rakell redirected another shot by Shea for his first career goal against the Ducks, who drafted him in 2011. He spent parts of 10 NHL seasons in Anaheim.

Gauthier tied it late in the first with a one-timer set up by Pavel Mintyukov.

Up next

Penguins: Visit Kings on Thursday.

Ducks: Host Hurricanes on Thursday.

SAN JOSÉ — Leo Carlsson scored 46 seconds into overtime and the Ducks overcame a two-goal, third-period deficit for a 7-6 win over the San José Sharks on Saturday night.

Cutter Gauthier and Chris Kreider each scored two goals for the Ducks. Beckett Sennecke added his second goal of the season while Alex Killorn also scored. Mason McTavish had three assists.

The Ducks trailed 2-0 and 6-4 before rallying.

After San José missed an empty-netter late in the third period, Kreider knocked in his second goal with 49.5 seconds remaining to force overtime.

The Sharks won the face off in the extra period, but Macklin Celebrini missed a high shot and the Ducks recovered to set up Carlsson’s winner from the left circle.

Tyler Toffoli, Ryan Reaves, Mario Ferraro, John Klingberg, Adam Gaudette and Jeff Skinner all had goals for San José. Yaroslav Askarov had 36 saves.

The Sharks led 2-0 midway through the first period on goals by Toffoli and Reaves. Both shots came in front of the Ducks’ net, with Reaves racing in from the left untouched before flipping the puck past Ducks goalie Petr Mrazek (17 saves).

The Ducks responded with Gauthier scoring 40 seconds after Reaves’ score before Sennecke tied it on power-play goal, his second in as many games.

After the two teams traded goals early in the second period, Klingberg scored in a five-on-three situation to give San José the lead.

Gauthier’s first goal of the night came on Alexander Wennberg’s pass from behind the net before Kreider’s first goal of the season with 31 seconds left in the second period trimmed the Sharks’ lead to 5-4.

Skinner scored after maneuvering around three defenders in front of the Ducks goal to put the Sharks ahead 6-4.

Up next for the Ducks: Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins in their home opener at Honda Center.