Ducks bury Jets with five-goal finish built on depth scoring and a sharp Lukas Dostal

Anaheim's supporting cast started it

This was not a night when Anaheim needed a barrage of chances. The Ducks scored on their first goal at 14:41 of the opening period, when Judd Caulfield finished a snap shot with Jeff Malott and Tim Washe drawing the assists. They doubled the lead at 5:20 of the second, this time with Washe converting and Malott and Caulfield setting it up. Two periods in, Anaheim had only two goals on limited volume, but it had the game exactly where it wanted it on the scoreboard.

Those first two goals mattered because they came from players lower in the scoring order rather than from the most familiar names. Caulfield finished with a goal and an assist. Washe matched that with a goal and an assist. Malott collected two assists, meaning the Ducks' opening cushion was built almost entirely by a line that kept turning short stretches into real damage. In a 17-shot game, that kind of efficiency changes everything.

Anaheim added to that edge in quieter ways too. The Ducks won 52.4 per cent of the faceoffs, outhit Winnipeg 25-14 and blocked 20 shots, more than double the Jets' total of nine. Those numbers do not tell the whole story of a game, but they do explain why Winnipeg spent much of the night chasing clean second chances even though the overall shot count stayed close.

Every Winnipeg answer met another Ducks goal

The third period briefly offered Winnipeg a path back. Sam Colangelo pushed the Ducks ahead 3-0 at 4:25, taking a Beckett Sennecke feed and extending a lead that already looked awkward for the Jets because they were not generating much separation anywhere else on the scoresheet. Winnipeg finally broke through at 10:36 when Kyle Connor scored his sixth goal of the season on a wrist shot, with Mark Scheifele and Dylan DeMelo assisting.

That cut the margin to two, but the opening did not last long enough to reshape the night. Mikael Granlund restored Anaheim's three-goal cushion at 14:06, finishing a play from Noah Warren and Jackson LaCombe. Then, with 41 seconds left, Nikita Nesterenko scored off a Sennecke pass with Granlund adding the second assist. Winnipeg's lone push ended up framed by two more Anaheim finishes, which is the clearest explanation for how a competitive shot total still became a four-goal loss.

Sennecke's night deserves a separate mention because his two assists arrived on third-period goals that shut the door after Winnipeg tried to make the game uncomfortable. Granlund also produced a goal and an assist, while LaCombe logged 27:02 and Warren played 24:12 from the blue line. Anaheim did not need a single star to carry the evening; it rolled the scoring burden across several contributors and got meaningful minutes from defenders who were heavily involved in preserving the lead.

Our take

The result says as much about Winnipeg's missed opportunities as it does about Anaheim's finishing. The Jets had four power plays and came away empty on all of them. In a game where shots finished 17-16 for Anaheim, special teams were the cleanest route back into it, and Winnipeg got nothing there. Connor's goal was the only finish to beat Dostal, who turned aside 15 of 16 shots for a .938 save percentage.

The giveaway count is just as hard for Winnipeg to ignore. The Jets were charged with 26 giveaways, compared with 16 for Anaheim, and that kind of loose puck management makes a low-event game expensive. When the other team is converting at a high rate, extra lost possessions leave almost no room for a mediocre period or a cold power play. Winnipeg also managed only one assist from its top-end forwards beyond Scheifele's helper on the Connor goal, which left too much of the offence stranded in one sequence.

For Anaheim, the most encouraging part is not simply that it scored five times. It is that the Ducks did it without needing overwhelming shot totals or one player to take over the game. They got contributions from Caulfield, Washe, Colangelo, Granlund and Nesterenko, two assists from Sennecke, and enough defensive support in front of Dostal to keep Winnipeg to a single goal. If there is a caution even in a comfortable win, it is the penalty count: Anaheim took five penalties and gave Winnipeg four power-play opportunities. On this night the Jets failed to cash in. Against a sharper power play, that part of the ledger could look much less forgiving.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 14:41

   Judd Caulfield Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Jeff Malott (1), Tim Washe (2)

2. 2nd · 5:20

   Tim Washe Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Jeff Malott (2), Judd Caulfield (1)

3. 3rd · 4:25

   Sam Colangelo Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Beckett Sennecke (2)

4. 3rd · 10:36

   Kyle Connor Goal (6) Wrist Shot, assists: Mark Scheifele (3), Dylan DeMelo (2)

5. 3rd · 14:06

   Mikael Granlund Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Noah Warren (2), Jackson LaCombe (4)

6. 3rd · 19:19

   Nikita Nesterenko Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Beckett Sennecke (3), Mikael Granlund (3)