Terry, Gibson Lead Ducks Past Wings 3-2 In Home Opener
Although Troy Terry is only five games into his NHL career, he was already something of a shootout legend even before he arrived in Anaheim.
When he got his first shootout opportunity for the Ducks on Monday night, Terry broke out the same skills he employed to win two enormous shootouts in the world junior championships last year.
Terry sent the crowd home happy — with plenty of help from John Gibson, of course.
Terry scored the only goal in the shootout, Gibson made 19 saves and the Ducks celebrated the home opener of their 25th anniversary season with a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
Jakob Silfverberg scored the tying goal with 11:31 to play, and Hampus Lindholm also scored as the Ducks improved to 3-0-0 for the first time since their 2006-07 Stanley Cup championship season.
Terry scored through Jimmy Howard's legs in his fifth NHL game, and Gibson stopped all three Red Wings shooters.
Terry famously scored three times for the U.S. junior team against Russia in a semifinal shootout in Montreal in January 2017. He put the puck past Howard with pretty much the same five-hole shot he used three times on Ilya Samsonov in that reputation-making win.
"There's so much pressure now whenever I jump over the wall to take those," Terry said. "I've kind of been known for scoring five-hole, so I figured I'd try it again. Luckily it worked. ... It's the weirdest thing. My brain just goes to one thing."
Terry also scored the only shootout goal in the championship game against Canada to win the world juniors, but he claims no special expertise in shootout skills. Ducks coach Randy Carlyle disagreed, sending out the rookie as his second shooter.
"He's made it pretty easy (to choose him), because he's been able to score," Carlyle said. "It was a natural."
Tyler Bertuzzi and Darren Helm scored and Howard stopped 24 shots for the Red Wings, who are winless in their first three games. Detroit couldn't hold two leads in a game between two young rosters getting NHL experience on the fly.
"I think we're just going to stay the course," forward Gustav Nyquist said. "We have liked the way we played, especially the first two games. Today we could be a little better with the puck, but overall we are going to be fine in here if we keep competing the way we are."
Exactly 25 years to the day after the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim debuted at Honda Center against the Red Wings, the teams met again in the Ducks' home opener. Detroit spoiled the Mighty Ducks' debut on Oct. 8, 1993, with a 7-2 victory.
After starting this season with two road victories despite an injury-depleted roster, Anaheim finally opened its anniversary season at Honda Center, the Ducks' home for their entire existence — and much better known to hockey fans as the Pond.
But captain Ryan Getzlaf, NHL MVP Corey Perry, Selke Trophy winner Ryan Kesler and goal-scoring forwards Patrick Eaves and Ondrej Kase all missed the home opener due to injury, while power forward Nick Ritchie is still a contract holdout.
"They are finding ways to win right now without their big guys in the lineup," Howard said of the Ducks.
Six rookies were in the Ducks' starting lineup, underlining Anaheim's commitment to use its ample young talent this season.
"We put them in situations historically they would play in lower levels," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "This is the best league in the world. They were in there and survived, so hopefully they feel good about themselves."
The Ducks held a brief pregame ceremony in the first chapter of a season-long celebration of the history of an expansion franchise named after a kids' movie as part of the Walt Disney Company's venture into team sports in the 1990s. Owners Henry and Susan Samueli dropped the ceremonial first puck alongside Michael Eisner, the former Disney chairman who guided the franchise into existence.
NOTES: Isac Lundestrom, an 18-year-old Swedish center, made his NHL debut for the Ducks. He is the third-youngest player and youngest forward to make his debut with Anaheim. ... D Joe Hicketts returned to the Red Wings' lineup after Trevor Daley injured himself in Los Angeles on Sunday night. ... The healthy Ducks wore the team's 1993 eggplant-and-jade jerseys during pregame warmups, and they played in their new third jerseys using similar colors and the club's original logo with a duck-bill goalie mask and crossed hockey sticks.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: Host Toronto on Thursday.
Ducks: Host Arizona on Wednesday.
© 2018 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
