Ducks blow two-goal lead, lose Gauthier in OT loss to Maple Leafs
Toronto was determined to get retribution for Anaheim captain Radko Gudas taking out Leafs captain Auston Matthews in their last meeting. While the Ducks handled the emotion of that circus, Anaheim let the lead slip away in an eventual overtime loss. Leading goal scorer Cutter Gauthier left with an upper-body injury
The Anaheim Ducks defender Ian Moore (3) defends the goal during an NHL game against The Toronto Maple Leafs, March 30th, 2026 in Anaheim, California. ANAHEIM, Calif. – It looked like there were two points in the bag.
The Anaheim Ducks had handled the circus of the Radko Gudas retaliation game by the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs and led by two goals into the third period. Then it slipped away. A sloppy final 20 minutes allowed the Leafs to rush back and grab a 4-3 lead, and despite Leo Carlsson coming back from injury to score another miraculous game-tying goal, Toronto pounced on a tired Ducks shift in overtime for the winner, 5-4, on Monday at Honda Center.
Carlsson scored two goals, John Carlson scored his first as a Duck and Cutter Gauthier scored his team-leading 38th goal of the season. Ville Husso made 23 saves to help earn a point and grow the Ducks’ Pacific Division lead to four points with eight games to play. “What I think is we should have had two points in the game and been moving on to tomorrow,” John Carlson said, “but I think we did a good job for a lot of the game in terms of how we played in terms of dealing with the emotions and dealing with what it was.
But we got to be more mature and come out on top of these games when we're coming down the stretch. We're running out of real estate to both collect as many points as we can and also feel good about how we're playing. ” Gauthier left the game after scoring in the first period.
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