Written by Eric Stephens at OCRegister.com
Winning two games on the road to get back into a Stanley Cup playoff series might seem to be a Herculean task, but home ice has been no advantage in this postseason and the Ducks already knew what it was like to dig out of a big hole.
So while they stared at a two-game deficit against Nashville when they arrived in this city, the Ducks never saw as it as an insurmountable climb. And now they’re back on solid ground.
Timely goals that supported persistent defensive work, perfect penalty killing and brick wall goaltending again proved to be a winning combination, with the Ducks pulling even in their first-round series with a 4-1 Game 4 win Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.
Nate Thompson and Jamie McGinn scored 1:52 apart late in the second period to snap a tie and the Ducks have turned a best-of-7 series into a best-of-3 starting with Game 5 on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Honda Center.
“We knew we were down two coming in here,” Ducks winger Chris Stewart said. “We wanted to get one. Once we got that, we sort of shifted focus to getting the second one. Now it’s a best-of-3 with home ice advantage.
“We’re going home to a good crowd. Hopefully get a win and come back here.”
There has been no advantage being at home – the road team has won all four in the series – so that would be a new one. But the Ducks have put themselves in position to make it really count.
Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Cogliano also scored and the Ducks got another strong effort from goalie Frederik Andersen, who saw his shutout streak end at 151 minutes, 26 seconds (regular season and playoffs), but further buffeted his team’s confidence with 30 saves.
Doing things the hard way has helped define these Ducks, a thing they now joke about. But when you win another division title after being in last place at Christmas, you learn how to handle dire situations.
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