Ryan Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne lead Ducks to win over Stars
The Ducks on Wednesday added a player who could be the final piece in their bid to win the Stanley Cup this season. They then moved within two points of catching Western Conference leader Chicago.
“We’re plugging along,” Ducks defenseman Sheldon Souray said after the Ducks beat the Dallas Stars for the second time in three days, 5-2, at Honda Center.
“We’d like to be the best. We’ll keep working until we get there.”
The Ducks acquired center Matthew Lombardi from the Phoenix Coyotes for left wing Brandon McMillan, a move intended to boost depth at a position of need.
But adding depth appeared to be an act of greed on a night when 13 Ducks scored points — including captain Ryan Getzlaf’s fourth three-point game of the season on a goal and two assists — and goaltender Viktor Fasth stopped 23 shots and kept Dallas scoreless until the third period.
The Ducks are now 25-7-5.
“The guys do have a great team,” Lombardi (eight points this season) said in a telephone interview from Phoenix on Wednesday. “I want to help any way I can.”
He might be needed to spell Getzlaf some extra minutes.
The captain left the ice after his goal with 9 minutes 30 seconds remaining in the game with what appeared to be right leg or knee pain.
Getzlaf was iced down afterward and unavailable for comment, but Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said he didn’t expect the injury
to produce an absence Friday when the Ducks and Stars (16-17-3) play again.
“He scored the goal, and I said, ‘That’s enough,’” Boudreau said.
In his third game as a Duck, veteran right wing Radek Dvorak scored his first goal with Anaheim 11:44 into the game for a 1-0 lead.
After Dallas failed even to get a shot off in the game’s first six minutes, Getzlaf launched a hard pass 12
feet in front of the goal to Dvorak, who swatted it past Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen.
“Beautiful,” Dvorak said of Getzlaf’s assist. “One of the best passers in the league.”
Getzlaf again assisted when Teemu Selanne gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead on a power-play goal after a tripping call against Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski.
Five minutes later, with 3:22 remaining in the second period, 22-year-old wing Kyle Palmieri rushed the Dallas goal and slid the puck past Lehtonen in the crease.
Fasth was beaten twice in the third period.
First, Erik Cole took a pass behind the net and Fasth’s left shoulder from Vernon Fiddler and scored less than three minutes into the third.
Then, after Getzlaf made it 4-1 with a backhanded shot for his 13th goal of the season, Dallas’ Lane MacDermid fired a shot to Fasth’s right with 1:24 left in the game.
An empty-net goal by the Ducks Andrew Cogliano, his 11th, followed in the final seconds.
The Ducks also traded minor league goaltender Jeff Deslauriers to the Minnesota Wild for future considerations.
Deslauriers was dealt from a position of strength, since the Ducks possess Jonas Hiller and Fasth.
Lombardi, 31, has previously played with Ducks Daniel Winnik in Phoenix, David Steckel in Toronto and Toni Lydman in Calgary.
His contract expires at season’s end.
“My speed is my game, getting to both ends of the rink quickly and creating opportunities offensively with it,” Lombardi said.
Twitter: @latimespugmire
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