Troy Terry, Ducks look to keep momentum rolling vs. Red Wings

Troy Terry's goal-scoring touch is back and so are the Anaheim Ducks, who ended a four-game losing streak in advance of a meeting with the visiting Detroit Red

Troy Terry's goal-scoring touch is back and so are the Anaheim Ducks, who ended a four-game losing streak in advance of a meeting with the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Terry's first career hat trick, in a 4-1 victory at home over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, gave him 21 goals on the season. He had just 15 goals in 129 career games before the current campaign.

When the Ducks were in the midst of their four-game losing streak that wrapped around the extended holiday break, Terry was held without a goal, although he did notch two assists.

Terry has now scored a goal 11 times this season to either tie a game or give the Ducks the lead. The number shows just how valuable Terry is to the Ducks' offense, but the going has been a bit tough of late with a number of key absences.

Top offensive performers Ryan Getzlaf and Trevor Zegras have been in COVID-19 protocol since the NHL resumed play last week. In addition, the Ducks have been without forwards Adam Henrique (lower body) and Max Jones (upper body). Forwards Sam Carrick and Derek Grant were added to protocol this week.

"For us, that was as big of a win as I can remember this year," said Ducks coach Dallas Eakins, who earned his 100th NHL victory. "That was to a man everyone doing their job and being fully committed to a game plan. We had big saves when we needed them, and our special teams chipped in."

The 24-year-old Terry tried to downplay his big night. He said his first goal 3:21 into the game was an accidental deflection of a Hampus Lindholm blast. On his open-net goal in the closing minute, he said his intention was to actually pass to teammate Sonny Milano.

There was no downplaying his second goal, when he collected the puck near center ice and zoomed through the center of the Philadelphia defense, beating Flyers goalie Carter Hart with a backhanded flip.

"I just didn't feel like I was skating like myself, attacking defensemen and doing that type of stuff," Terry said. "I needed to get back to it."

The Red Wings also are feeling a bit better about the road ahead. They closed out a three-game post-Christmas homestand with a 6-2 victory Tuesday over the San Jose Sharks to end a two-game skid.

Tyler Bertuzzi and Pius Suter each had two goals by the midway point of the game and the Red Wings cruised to the victory. Detroit had gone 100 games without a shorthanded goal, but they ended that drought emphatically by scoring twice while a man down on the same five-minute penalty.

Suter scored the first shorthanded goal at 2:04 of the second period and Bertuzzi had the other just 37 seconds later. Bertuzzi now has six goals in his last five games.

"You don't really kill a major any differently than you kill a minor. You are just trying to survive being shorthanded and go from there," Suter said. "Getting through it and suddenly having a 3-0 lead was obviously huge for us."

--Field Level Media