Ducks get double birthday strikes from Cutter Gauthier, win fourth straight

ANAHEIM, Calif. – What a difference a week has made for the Anaheim Ducks.

Last Monday, the Ducks were coming off a winless road trip mired in the free fall of a nine-game losing streak. This Monday, Anaheim is riding a four-game win streak as they head off on another road trip, and the goal-scoring has come back alive.

Cutter Gauthier scored twice, including his team-leading 22nd goal on his 22nd birthday, as the Ducks collected another comeback victory over the visiting New York Rangers, 5-3, on Monday at Honda Center.

Anaheim has won four in a row for the first time since the end of its seven-game win streak on Nov. 9. Next on the docket for Anaheim? Just as it was after that November streak: a road date in Colorado.

“A lot different than, like, a week or a week or two weeks ago, right?” Alex Killorn said. “t's just the way the season goes. We've been playing really well defensively, like not giving up a ton. That's really been, I think, a huge reason why we've been successful, especially with the guys we have out of our lineup, guys that are huge offensive tools for us. So I think the way we're playing is pretty great defensively.”

Without points leader Leo Carlsson (out 3-5 weeks following a thigh procedure) and assists leader Troy Terry (on injured reserve, day-to-day with an upper-body injury), the Ducks have committed to the defensive details.

On the flip side, this was the Ducks’ first five-goal game since a 7-1 blowout of Chicago on Dec. 7, which was also the last time Anaheim sent its fans home with free chicken.

“It's a long season, 82-game season,” Gauthier said, and you have to stay even-keeled. Can't get too high when things are great and can't get too low when things aren't so great. Have a good mentality, bring a positive attitude every single day, and just continue to work hard.”

Mason McTavish scored his third goal in five games to tie the game, 1-1, and Jeffrey Viel scored his first goal since 2022 to level it once more, 2-2. Killorn’s power play goal put the Ducks ahead, and Gauthier’s 21st of the season gave the Ducks a two-goal lead, 4-2, in the third period.

The Rangers scored twice on the power play with a snipe from Artemi Panarin and a point blast from Vladislav Gavrikov to cut the Ducks’ lead to just one, 4-3. Entering the game, Anaheim’s penalty kill had negated 10 of its last 10 opportunities and 19 of its last 20.

Lukas Dostal made 19 saves, including a pair of crucial on a late five-on-three netmouth scramble. Spencer Martin stopped 21 of 25 shots for New York.

“We got through the first 5-10 minutes there, and they were coming through us rather easily,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We'll take the win, and you know, it doesn't always have to be a thing of art, but an ugly (win) sometimes was basically what happened today.”

Anaheim (25-21-3, 53 points) is back in a playoff spot for the first time since Jan. 7, when the Ducks fell out of the picture for the first time since Oct. 10.

Anaheim sits in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference and is tied with San Jose (25-20-3, 53 points) for third place in the Pacific Division. Seattle (21-17-9, 51 points) and Los Angeles (19-16-13, 51 points) sit just behind with a game in hand.

Anaheim heads out to a five-game northwestern road trip with beginning with league-leading Colorado on Wednesday and a crucial divisional match-up in Seattle on Friday.

Candles for Cutter

After being among the league’s hottest goal scorers at the season’s outset, Cutter Gauthier hit a bit of a slump in December and January.

A little birthday magic–and the New York Rangers–was seemingly all the now 22-year-old needed. Gauthier’s two goals were his first in six games, second in 10 games and third in 15 games since… a two-goal night against the Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

“I feel like every birthday, I get a goal,” Gauthier said. “Just keep it simple. I feel like I've been thinking a little bit too much, and I just want to play a simple brand and not think too much and just play.”

Gauthier had battled an illness last week, and with that recovery, his slight slump and the shuffling necessitated by the Ducks’ injuries and other illnesses, his minutes had been reduced. On Monday, the usual top-six left-winger skated on the third-line right wing with Ryan Poehling and newcomer Jeffrey Viel.

That trio accounted for three goals against New York.

“Nice to have some production,” Quenneville said of Gauthier. “We put a line together that we'd put him on the other side, and all of a sudden, he clicked with those guys, and he had some looks on the power play, and had more influence around the game when he didn't have the puck. So that was noticeable.”

“That was the line that, you know, I was wondering how it would look, and very pleased at the end of the night. All three of them contributed in a good way.”

Without Carlsson and Terry, there is some pressure on Gauthier to carry that torch. The Ducks are getting contributions from up and down the line-up, but if their leading goal-scorer can get fully back on track, they’ll be sitting pretty.

“Definitely,” Gauthier said of pressure. “(but) I don’t think anything in my game changes. Obviously, you want to produce and help the team win with the best I can every single night, and with those two guys out, I obviously got to step up and try to do my best to help the team.”

Viel For Real

It’s only been two games in a Ducks uniform, but Jeffrey Viel is making plenty of friends in his new home.

After being acquired from Boston for a fourth-round pick on Friday–in what many saw as a strange and out-of-the-blue move for a player that was the Bruins’ second healthy scratch on most nights–the 28-year-old forward from Rimouski, Quebec has shown off his finer traits.

On Saturday, Viel punched more than five inches and 11 pounds above his weight in a fight against the rival Los Angeles Kings, and even drew blood from his opponent Sam Helenius.

Viel after that game that he’s “always down” to chuck knuckles.

On Monday, Viel put his hands to even better use, as he cleaned up a rebound in front of the net off a takeaway and shot by Ryan Poehling to tie up the Rangers, 2-2, in the second period.

It was Viel’s first goal and point since March 18, 2022, when he was a member of the San Jose Sharks. All of Viel’s three career goals and five career points entering Monday came in that 2021-22 season with the Sharks.

Since then, Viel has appeared in just 32 NHL games for three different teams across parts of four seasons.

Funnily enough, all the components of Viel’s goal were pieces in last summer’s Trevor Zegras trade with Philadelphia, with Poehling being the principal player acquisition and Viel being acquired with a fourth-round pick. 

It isn’t confirmed that the pick used to acquire Viel will be that Philadelphia pick, as the pick that will go to Boston will be whichever is the better between the Flyer’s fourth-round pick and the Detroit fourth-round pick received in the John Gibson trade. As of Monday, it figures to be the Philadelphia pick.

Special Teams Ups and Downs

The Ducks highs and lows of its man-up/man-down units each took their turn in Monday’s win.

Anaheim’s penalty kill had been nails recently, killing 10 of its last 10 and 19 of its previous 20, which the one goal allowed coming on five-on-three.

Then New York scored on its first two power plays, as the Ducks allowed two power play goals for the first time since Dec. 11.

On the other end, the Ducks’ penalty kill denied the Rangers’ most critical opportunities on a five-on-three with under five minutes to go. Some credit goes to the crossbar. Some credit goes to Lukas Dostal. Some credit goes to the Ducks’ kill.

“You could always look back and there's things that we could have done different to stop those,” Killorn said, “but I think on the biggest PK that we needed to stop them, I think we did that. So, that kind of defines good PKs, in my opinion, when it's the most important time of the game. We stepped out and we killed that, you know, help us win the game.”

Anaheim’s power play also broke through with its first tally in six games, but it was far from pretty.

The veteran unit of Killorn, Chris Kreider and Ryan Strome dug and dug and dug for the puck behind the Rangers net, and eventually sent it back to the point. Jacob Trouba unleashed a shot that squeezed through the Ranger’s netminder’s shoulder, and Killorn cleaned up the rebound.

“It's kind of one of those power plays where things just kind of go your way,” Killorn said. “We're working hard behind the net. You work so hard and just got a kind of nice balance where it kind of squeaks through his shoulder or whatever, but we'll take it.”

Anaheim will take any bounce it can find, as the win streak rolls on.