The good, the bad, and the ugly; how the Ducks lost in the Windy City

The Anaheim Ducks lost to the Chicago Blackhawks by a final score of 5-3, but that should not have happened. After carrying the play through the first 10 minutes of the game, the Ducks eventually crumpled in Chicago.

Entering the game, Leo Carlsson and Connor Bedard were on torrid and nearly identical point paces.

In what should have been a marquee matchup between two franchise stars, only one star ultimately delivered though.

The good

Cutter Gauthier opened the scoring for Anaheim only 15 seconds into the first period, off of a 2 on 1 with Troy Terry.

In what would be emblematic of later in the game, that would be Carlsson's only point, via a secondary assist on the play.

32 seconds later, Olen Zellweger would add another goal, setting a franchise record for the fastest two goals in Ducks history.

Chris Kreider would tack on another goal at 10:25 of the first period, his 600th point, giving the Ducks a much needed 3-0 lead, for once. The Ducks were flying high over a Western Conference rival. Queue the Sephiroth theme song.

The bad

Chicago rallied against the Ducks off of a pair of power play goals, one from Tyler Bertuzzi and the other from Colton Dach, with a Ryan Greene even strength goal wedged in between. Anaheim had their chance to counter with a couple power plays of their own, but came up empty, making the score tied at 3-3 entering the third period.

With the Blackhawks on the powerplay again, the Ducks thought they had taken the lead short-handed off an Alex Killorn goal. The play was deemed offside, however, as Ryan Poehling had entered the zone early and what should have been a game leading goal was wiped off the scoreboard.

The ugly

Almost halfway through the third period, Petr Mrazek, the game's starting goalie for the Ducks, had to leave due to an injury. Already down their nominal starter of Lukas Dostal, third string goalie, Ville Husso was tabbed to go into the game for the Ducks. And the rest of the game did not go well for Husso, as Bedard scored quickly off of a bad turnover from the Ducks, who left the Chicago center alone in front of the net with plenty of time and space, putting the Blackhawks up 4-3.

With Husso pulled late in the game, and not at the right time honestly, Bedard pounced on another bad Ducks turnover and potted the empty net goal, giving Chicago the eventual 5-3 win. In the matchup between the top draft picks, Bedard definitively got the edge over Carlsson in this game.

With a quick turnaround against the St. Louis Blues tomorrow, coupled with major questions in the goalie crease, the adversity is beginning to mount for this version of the Ducks. Already down Dostal and possibly Mrazek, the real test begins now; let's see how they handle it.