ANAHEIM — It was an evening of debuts for the Ducks on Wednesday night, none more prominent than that of this season’s No. 3 overall selection Beckett Sennecke.
But it was last year’s prized pick, Leo Carlsson, leading the way with three points as the hosts handled Utah HC, 5-2, in a preseason game at Honda Center.
While Sennecke was making his first career preseason appearance, several returning players like second-year defenseman Pavel Mintyukov as well as veteran blue-liners Cam Fowler and Radko Gudas were making their first exhibition cameos of the year. The Ducks got goals from Alex Killorn, Brock McGinn, Cutter Gauthier, Robby Fabbri and Carlsson, as well as a 35-save night in net from Lukáš Dostál. Killorn added an assist while Carlsson tacked on two.
Kailer Yamamoto and Andrew Agozzino scored for Utah, and Karel Vejmelka turned aside 27 shots.
Sennecke’s score sheet seemed tame, but he scored a dazzling goal in the exhibition shootout and offered snapshots of the player he could become.
“I saw a young guy that’s extremely confident. You can see the plays he makes. A lot of them didn’t connect, but you can see what he’s looking at,” Coach Greg Cronin said. “He’s an elite thinker; he’s a step ahead of everybody.”
In the closing 20 minutes, Agozzino clawed back one goal for Utah with a snap shot, but the Ducks’ foray in the final frame was swift and decisive as they scored twice in a 50-second span early before adding a late insurance goal.
After their newly anointed captain Gudas started the period in the penalty box during a four-on-four situation, they broke the game open, with both their goals providing a promising peek at the season to come.
First it was Carlsson, Fowler and Gauthier running a sort of three-man weave after a zone re-entry that concluded with Carlsson looking off Michael Kesselring brilliantly before making a drop pass to Gauthier, who hammered the puck into a gaping aperture. Gauthier played just one game last season for the Ducks, but he and Carlsson could become their most formidable tandem in the not-so-distant future.
“I told them after the second period that we’ve got to be a shoot-first team, and then the first rush we get, Leo doesn’t shoot it, he throws it back to Cutter for the goal, right?” Cronin said. “You’re dealing with some elite players with elite IQs, you still want to create that mentality that you want to shoot it.”
Then, it was another player who made a brief appearance last year but figured to play a significant role this season, Tristan Luneau, executing a give-and-go play with Fabbri, an offseason trade acquisition. Fabbri dished to Luneau who slid the puck under Max Szuber’s pad, providing a silky setup for Fabbri’s tip.
While Cronin has consistently lauded Luneau, he’s had less time with Fabbri, whom he described as “our best player [Wednesday] in terms of visibility on both sides of the puck: his compete level, forechecking, penalty killing, backchecking and physicality.”
Carlsson scored his first goal and third point of the night when he redirected Killorn’s shot home with 8:23 to play.
Despite it being a game of runs in terms of the shot count – the Ducks held a 16-9 advantage before Utah reeled off a 19-7 stretch – the Ducks emerged with the lone goal of the second period.
A mere 2:50 had elapsed when the Ducks reclaimed the lead after McGinn secured the puck, reversed it and flashed low between the hash marks to guide a Gudas point shot past Vejmelka.
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The first period was played with pace and vigor, including the first of three scrums, and sent the teams to the first intermission deadlocked, 1-1.
Utah equalized at the 14:05 mark, when Yamamoto’s deflection from just inside the left faceoff dot beat Dostál after dinging metal and banking into twine. Yamamoto, a former Junior King who spent last season in Seattle, has been in Utah’s training camp on a professional tryout.
The Ducks had opened the scoring with a power-play goal that was orchestrated and finished by Killorn, 9:13 into the match. He settled the puck near the blue line, found Jackson LaCombe high in the zone, received the puck back, sent it to Carlsson and then slipped to the net as Carlsson set up LaCombe’s shot to be tipped in by Killorn.
That was one of at least three goals that exemplified the direct offensive play the Ducks have sought to refine during training camp.
“That’s been a huge point of emphasis,” said Killorn, a two-time Stanley Cup champion. “A lot of the better teams in this league out-shoot teams, and it’s a pretty simple formula: the more you shoot, the more chances you’re going to get.”
