Ducks 1, Lightning 0 (OT)
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- If hockey were baseball, Friday night's game between the Anaheim Ducks and visiting Tampa Bay Lightning was the proverbial pitcher's duel.
Both goaltenders stood on their heads, keeping their respective teams in the game and hopeful of getting a win.
With the dust settled, Anaheim came away with a 1-0 overtime win and pushed its home record to 9-0-1 this season. Center Ryan Getzlaf capped off a tense evening when he managed to score the game winning goal with only 5.2 seconds remaining in the extra session.
The Lightning are now on their way back to Tampa Bay after a disastrous road trip that saw them go 0-4, losing to Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Jose and Anaheim.
Goaltender Jonas Hiller was perfect in net for the Ducks, stopping all 31 shots he faced.
The Ducks dominated the opening frame, outshooting Tampa Bay 16-8 and held the opposition to just two shots over the final 14 minutes of the period.
Getzlaf had a short-handed breakaway just minutes after the opening faceoff, but was denied by goaltender Ben Bishop. Minutes later, right winger J.T. Brown broke in 2-on-1 on Hiller, only to be stoned by the Anaheim netminder.
Besides goaltending, fisticuffs was the story early on.
Recently acquired right winger Tim Jackman, making his Ducks debut, decided to make his presence felt on just his second shift of the game when he squared off with right winger B.J. Combreen midway through the first.
A second scrap, this time involving defenseman Luca Sbisa and Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas was brief, but it was later announced Gudas suffered an upper-body injury and he did not play the second half of the game.
The Ducks took several atypical penalties throughout the night, including center Andrew Cogliano being whistled for spraying snow on Bishop. Officials later sent center Nick Bonino to the box after he embellished a bit too much following a penalty on Tampa Bay center Tyler Johnson for hooking. Defenseman Bryan Allen added to the weirdness when he was called for closing his hand on the puck.
Similar to the game's opening minutes, spectacular goaltending at both ends of the ice was on display in the second period. With defenseman Cam Folwer in the box for tripping, Hiller had to make a huge glove save on a blast from center Alex Killorn.
At the other end, Bishop was equally impressive, stopping a short-handed shot from Cogliano. He made 42 saves total on the night.
NOTES: Anaheim G Jonas Hiller was a last-minute add to the Ducks line-up, as G Viktor Fasth was the announced starter. Anaheim officials said Fasth was being evaluated for a lower-body injury, with no further update available. ... Both teams made roster moves prior to the game, as Anaheim placed D Francois Beauchemin (upper body) on injured reserve and recalled D Sami Vatanen from the AHL Norfolk Admirals. ...Tampa Bay sent rookie RW Brett Connolly back to AHL Syracuse after he only scored one goal over 10 games since being called up Oct. 31. ... Recently inducted Hall of Fame defenseman, Scott Niedermayer, was honored in a pre-game ceremony and dropped the first puck. ... Lightning coach Jon Cooper elected to go with only 11 forwards, adding Andrej Sustr as a seventh defenseman. ... Friday concluded the season series between the two teams. Tampa Bay beat Anaheim 5-1 in their only other match-up.
