Anaheim Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen exuded confidence in a 4-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 on Sunday. He certainly didn’t seem to lose that swagger afterward, either, as the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Lazerus notes.
“Everyone in this room knows we can beat this team,” Andersen said.
Hey, when you make 32 saves (including plenty of challenging ones) in a big win like Andersen did, you probably earned a moment like this.
Ryan Kesler seconded him.
Ryan Kesler: "Obviously, we thought we could beat this team before the series, so this game wasn't a 'Yeah! We can beat these guys!'"
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) May 17, 2015
Bruce Boudreau likely enjoyed the result of a 1-0 series lead, yet he admits that the Ducks have room for improvement after Game 1.
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said his team was opportunistic and needs to play better if it’s going to win the series.
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) May 17, 2015
The feeling was that Chicago dominated much of the contest, at least until the Ducks went into their “finding another gear in the third period” routine. Perhaps things were a little closer than they seemed, though?
Anaheim vs. Chicago expected goals based on danger zones. Ducks did a good job keeping Hawks to the outside at 5-on-5 pic.twitter.com/zl3bRLMpCe
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) May 17, 2015
Either way, the Ducks aim to hold serve at home by taking a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday. If nothing else, it sounds like Andersen isn’t shrinking from the spotlight.