The Anaheim Ducks really needed this, and so did the two faces of their franchise.
A night after Ryan Getzlaf called himself and his partner-in-crime Corey Perry out for not scoring enough goals, Getzlaf generated the game-winner in a 3-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks.
The Ducks captain scored just his second goal of 2016-17 and helped his team snap a three-game losing streak. So, yeah, this was a pretty big deal.
Perry didn’t score a goal, but he did generate two assists of his own, so the Ducks’ dynamic duo really came through during a crucial time. If you want a sense of how much this meant to Anaheim, consider the efforts of Perry and Getzlaf, but also how much the team put on the line:
Sharks attempted 61 shots but the Ducks blocked 26 of them and 12 others missed the net. 13 different Ducks blocked at least one.
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) November 27, 2016
Losing to the Ducks is bad enough for San Jose, but in an uncomfortable theme of the night, the losing team also has to worry about a notable health issue. We may not know more about Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s status until Sunday (or maybe later), but it really adds an injury to the insult of losing to their California rivals.