CHICAGO — Connor Bedard scored the tie-breaking goal at 9:55 of the third period, added an empty-net score and had two assists as the Chicago Blackhawks rallied from an early three-goal deficit to top the Ducks 5-3 on Sunday and break a five-game slide.
Tyler Bertuzzi, Ryan Greene and Colton Dach also scored as Chicago tied it at 3 by 12:34 of the second. Chicago converted two of four power-play chances and killed all three Anaheim advantages.
Bedard beat Ville Husso with a nifty move from the front of the crease to put Chicago ahead 4-3 after a turnover by Alex Killorn. Husso had entered the game 44 seconds earlier after starter Petr Mrazek exited with an undisclosed injury.
Bedard fired into an empty net with 1:55 remaining to seal it.
Spencer Knight rebounded from a shaky start to finish with 23 saves.
Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist as the Ducks jumped out a 3-0 lead midway through the first period.
Chris Kreider scored for the second straight game to give him 600 career points. Olen Zellweger also scored and Troy Terry set up two goals to extend his point streak to seven games.
Mrazek made stopped 13 of 16 of shots before exiting in his first start against the Blackhawks since they traded him to Detroit in March. Ducks No. 1 goalie Lukas Dostal missed his third game with an upper-body injury.
Gauthier and Zellweger beat Knight on two of Anaheim’s first three shots, giving the Ducks a 2-0 lead 47 seconds in. Kreider’s off-the-skate deflection upped it to 3-0 at 10:25.
Bertuzzi cut it to 3-1 with 2:03 left in the first, deflecting in a power-play score. Greene made it 3-2 at 6:43 of the second, finishing a two-on-one-break with Bedard.
Dach tied it 3-3 during a power-play at 12:34 of the second.
A lot of people return home for the Thanksgiving weekend. But for Corey Perry, Friday’s homecoming was more than a little bit awkward.
One of the most decorated players in Ducks’ history, Perry was greeted by a smattering of boos when he wore a Kings’ sweater into the Honda Center for the first time. Two hours later he left, carrying the sting of a Ducks’ victory that saw his old team rally from deficits three times before winning the first Freeway Faceoff of the season 5-4 in a shootout.
“Great comeback,” said winger Chris Kreider, whose second-period power-play goal got the Ducks started. “A good job of fighting back. It’s definitely a confident feeling.”
Leo Carlsson, who suffered through two dismal losing seasons during the long post-Perry rebuild in Anaheim, had two assists and the game-tying goal with 91 seconds left in regulation for the Ducks, who trailed 4-2 with less than 10 minutes to play.
The Kings’ Jacob Moverare blocks a pass from Duck Mason McTavish (23) to Beckett Sennecke (45) Friday at the Honda Center.
(Harry How/Getty Images)
“It’s a different team,” Carlsson said. “Hungry. Different mentality, too. So it’s been great so far season.”
Only Ryan Getzlaf has played more games for the Ducks then Perry, who left Anaheim in 2019 after 14 seasons, beginning an aimless tour of the NHL that saw him play for five teams before signing a free-agent contract with the Kings last summer.
The Ducks haven’t posted a winning record since he departed.
But after Friday’s victory they lead the division and are off to their best start in more than a decade. The Ducks are second in the Western Conference in wins (15), second in the NHL in goals (89), fourth in the conference in points (31) and were tied for fourth in points (31). For Carlsson, meanwhile, his 13th goal and 19th and 20th assists of the season Friday left 20, is tied for fourth in the league with 33 points.
The Ducks’ other scores Friday came from Olen Zellweger in the second period and Pavel Mintyukov in the third.
The Kings’ scores came Alex Laferriere, Kevin Fiala, Alex Turcotte and Joel Edmundson. With the point they earned by taking the game to overtime, the Kings headed back up the freeway Friday afternoon second in the Pacific Division, two points behind the Ducks.
The Kings’ Corey Perry looks on during the second period against the Ducks at the Honda Center on Thursday.
(Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images)
And, surprisingly, they have Perry to thank for that.
“He’s a massive piece for us right now,” center Philip Danault said. “He’s not the fastest guy on the ice but he’s so smart. He goes into the crease, he gets goals. He gets in the opponent’s head.
“He’s probably one of the big reasons we’re winning.”
Since leaving Anaheim, Perry has come off the visitors’ bench at the Honda Center several times. So Friday’s game wasn’t necessarily one he had circled on his calendar.
“It was home,” he said before the game. “I have nothing but tremendous things to say.”
After missing the start of the season following knee surgery, Perry was activated last month on the same day captain Anze Kopitar was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury. And he immediately took up the slack, scoring the first of his seven goals — good for second on the team — in his second game. He also has six assists, is fourth on the team with 13 points and is averaging more than 14 minutes of ice time just the second time since he left Anaheim.
“You know, it’s fun,” said Perry, who is nearly halfway to his point total of a season ago. “This is what we do for a living.”
Perry, 40, is the third-oldest player in the NHL. But with a Stanley Cup, an MVP award, a goal-scoring title and two Olympic gold medals in his trophy case, he has a resume few players can match. Yet the Ducks bought out the final two seasons and $8.625 million of his contract in 2019, part of a rebuild that has seen the franchise go through three coaches and three general managers without posting a winning record.
“Now it’s seven years later. I don’t know anybody on the team,” Perry said of the Ducks, who have the second-youngest roster in the Western Conference. “It’s turned over so much that it’s a new group.”
Ducks center Mason McTavish scores the winning goal during a shootout of against the Kings on Friday at the Honda Center.
(William Liang/AP)
And new coach Joel Quenneville, who has a history of coaching success with young players, has that new group playing with confidence.
“We’re never going to give up,” said Carlsson, one of six Ducks younger than 23. “That’s the mentality.”
Laferriere got the scoring started late in the first period, parking himself in front of the goal and banging the puck past Ducks’ goalie Ville Husso, who made two big saves in the shootout.
Kreider tied it seconds into a power play midway through the second period, then Fiala and Zellweger exchanged goals just 59 seconds apart to send the teams into the second intermission tied 2-2.
Turcotte’s first goal of the season on a tip-in put the Kings back in front early in the third period before Edmundson doubled the lead on a slap shot from outside the right faceoff circle. He was helped by Perry’s presence in front of the goal, screening Husso on the shot.
The Kings wouldn’t score again though, allowing the Ducks to force overtime on goals from Mintyukov and Carlsson, who game-tying score came after his team pulled Husso to get an extra attacker.
“It was fun,” McTavish said of his first Freeway Faceoff matinee, which drew a sellout crowd of 17,174. “It was loud. There was a lot of energy in the building. So it was a ton of fun, and obviously more fun to come away with both points.”
Mitchell Starc takes the wicket of Zak Crawley, who’s caught behind by Usman Khawaja at first slip, for a duck as England fall to 0-1 at the end of the first over of the innings on day one of the first Ashes Test in Perth.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota backup Jesper Wallstedt made 28 saves for his second straight shutout and the Wild beat the Ducks 2-0 on Saturday night.
Wallstedt extended his shutout streak to 141 minutes 9 seconds after beating Calgary 2-0 last Sunday night.
The 23-year-old Swede’s biggest save Saturday came when he robbed Frank Vatrano alone in front of the goal late in the second period. Wallstedt the backup to Filip Gustavsson, the fellow Swede who signed a five-year, $34-million extension Oct. 4.
Marcus Johansson scored in the second period and Matt Boldy added an empty-netter.
Minnesota improved to 5-1-1 in its last seven games, giving up only 12 goals in that stretch. The Wild are 19-1-0 against the Ducks dating to the 2020-21 season, including six consecutive wins since March 14, 2024.
Petr Mrazek made 29 saves for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks. They have scored only four goals in losing three in a row after winning nine of 10. Anaheim entered the day averaging 3.88 goals per game, second-best in the NHL.
Johansson opened the scoring 55 seconds into the second. Down the slot a stride behind Ryan Strome, Johansson got a pass from Boldy, went from forehand to backhand to deke Mrazek and lifted the puck past the down goalie. Johansson has seven goals this season after scoring just 11 goals each of the last two seasons.
The Wild have scored first in a franchise-record eight consecutive games.
Minnesota was 0 for 7 on the power play, the Ducks 0 for 2.
Ducks center Mikael Granlund, who returned Thursday after missing eight games because of a lower-body injury, missed the game because of the same issue. Wild right wing Vladimir Tarasenko missed his first game of the season because of a lower-body injury.
Up next
The Ducks open a six-game homestand against Utah on Monday night. The Wild host Vegas on Sunday night.
With heavy rain expected this weekend, the chance for high school football players in Los Angeles to run, tackle and enjoy playing in the mud is more than possible. There’s eight City Section teams hosting playoff games Friday night with grass fields that have little grass left.
That means fun times ahead.
“It’s not going to be pretty,” Venice coach Angelo Gasca said of his field’s condition for a game against Franklin.
The coaches might not like mud, but Gasca said his players are excited.
“Everyone is looking forward to it,” Gasca said.
San Pedro, Venice, Eagle Rock, Cleveland, San Fernando, Santee, Jefferson and Wilson have either not changed their fields into all-weather turf or chose to keep grass. Eagle Rock next season is switching to all-weather, so coach Andy Moran might have a final home game in the mud against Dorsey.
San Pedro lost to Eagle Rock in the rain in 2022. Pirates coach Corey Walsh has not forgotten. He prepared with wet footballs in practice this week for Friday’s game against Crenshaw.
“We’re super excited,” he said.
The people who aren’t excited are the bus drivers who will have to clean their buses; fans who will break out umbrellas, plastic hats and boots; parents who will have to clean uniforms; sportswriters trying to keep stats with no covering.
Yes, Southern California is not used to playing high school football in the rain. One of the most famous games was Servite beating Edison 16-6 in the 2009 Pac-5 championship game at Angels Stadium. The lead sentence in the Los Angeles Times story was, “Playing in conditions more suitable for sea gulls and ducks.”
