January 19, 2019— First NHL Goal Against the New Jersey Devils
After a lackluster performance at the beginning of the season, Troy Terry was sent down to the San Diego Gulls to spend some time learning from Dallas Eakins. It didn’t take long before Terry was flourishing in the AHL and had become one of the best players on the Gulls roster.
In typical Ducks fashion, the injury bug struck early in the new year, which gave Terry the chance to earn a call-up and show Randy Carlyle and Bob Murray just how much he had improved over the past few months. Troy Terry and Max Jones came into the lineup on January 17. It was during that game that the Anaheim Ducks ended their 12 game losing streak. Coincidence? I think not!
It was just one game later when Troy Terry would finally score his first NHL goal against the New Jersey Devils. His goal was proof that he had grown in both his confidence and maturity, which would help him secure a spot in the lineup for the rest of the season until an unfortunate injury saw him sidelined.
One of the Anaheim Ducks many issues of the season was their special teams. Their power play and penalty kill units are extremely underwhelming and could possibly be one of the worst in the league. However, they were given the one-man advantage after Steven Santini took a 2 minute minor for tripping.
Things started out messy. The Anaheim Ducks were making mistakes left and right, which almost resulted in a short-handed goal for New Jersey. John Gibson did John Gibson things and fortunately, made the save. The Ducks finally got the puck out of their own zone and pulled it together.
With less than a minute left on the power play, Devin Shore played the puck across the ice to Troy Terry. Terry, unfortunately, didn’t have the clearance in front of the net he was looking for, so he sent the puck up the ice to Daniel Sprong. Sprong put the puck on Hampus Lindholm‘s stick who sent it back to Terry.
With a little less traffic in front of the net, Terry seized the opportunity and sent the puck between the arm and body of MacKenzie Blackwood from the far side. This gave the Anaheim Ducks a 2-1 lead over the Devils and resulted in Terry’s first NHL goal. This also gave fans a glimpse into what a functioning power-play unit could look like if the team integrated more of the youth into the special teams.