Ducks Stomp Panthers

     Two teams who are celebrating their 20th year in the NHL played on Sunday as the Anaheim Ducks pounded the Florida Panthers 6-2 at Honda Center. The Cats have lost seven of their last nine games and are one point away from being eliminated from the NHL playoff chase. Dan Ellis, who once played for the Ducks, made his 200th career NHL start in net.
     In the first period, Anaheim(46-18-7) scored on their first power-play opportunity as Patrick Maroon scored on a rebound shot on the left edge of the crease at 11:57. Corey Perry got the puck in the low slot area where Ryan Getzlaf took the initial shot. It was the ninth straight game that Florida(26-38-8) gave up a power-play goal.
     Teemu Selanne scored just 15 seconds into the second period on a one-time slapshot from the high slot to give the Ducks a 2-0 margin. It was his ninth goal this season and his 684th career NHL goal. The Ducks extended their lead to 3-0 at 4:08 as Jakob Silfverberg stole the puck from Brandon Pirri at center ice, went on a breakaway and put in an unassisted goal on a backhand shot.
     The Panthers would climb back in the contest with two straight goals. Dmitry Kulikov passed the puck from the low right circle to Krys Barch and he flung a wrist shot from the top right circle that was redirected by Jimmy Hayes past Jonas Hiller at 7:59. Two minutes later, Vincent Trocheck won a left circle face-off and carried the puck around the Ducks cage. His wraparound backhand pass went across the crease to Tomas Fleischmann and he put in a snap shot from the left of the crease at 10:00. It was the first NHL assist for Trocheck.
     Anaheim got one goal back just 55 seconds later as they picked up a two-goal cushion again as they made two passes in the crease area and Kyle Palmieri finished the play with a wrist shot from the right side of the blue paint. Perry would score his 37th goal one minute later at 11:55 on a tip-in and he got his own rebound in front of the Panthers net to make it 5-2.
     Getzlaf and Selanne performed a give-and-go at the top of the left circle and Getzlaf fired a wrist shot from the high slot for his 30th goal this season to give Anaheim a 6-2 edge at 6:32 of the third period.