ANAHEIM, Calif. – Sunday’s game was a message internally and externally for the Anaheim Ducks.

After blowing a 3-0 first-period lead in Chicago last Sunday for the second loss in two meetings against the Blackhawks this season, the Ducks responded to their own play and sent out a broadcast to all comers that this resilient team is not done swinging.

Anaheim scored four goals on a franchise-record 27 shots in the second period to capture the third and final meeting of this budding rivalry with the Blackhawks in a domineering 7-1 victory at Honda Center.

“Absolutely, and I think that showed,” Leo Carlsson said when asked if there was a specific focus on this game following last week’s result. “In a seven-nothing game, we never quit. We played like for 20 minutes the last time we were playing Chicago, so it was nice to get the whole game here.”

Carlsson scored two goals, including the Ducks’ second power play goal of the game 15 seconds into the third period. Chris Kreider assisted on both of Carlsson’s tallies as part of a three-assist night.

Beckett Sennecke scored a spectacular goal and assisted on Mason McTavish’s power-play strike, the Ducks’ first extra-man tally of the game. Jacob Trouba bombed in the Ducks opening score of the game, and Alex Killorn corralled a breakaway goal. Frank Vatrano, No. 77, knocked in the extra point on Anaheim’s seventh goal.

“I liked that we wanted to have it for 60 minutes,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Exiting that game (last Sunday in Chicago), going into St. Louis (last Monday), we said, hey, this was a self-inflicted wound that we had there. I think we showed clips on how many pucks we turned over in the middle of the ice by trying to make plays that weren’t there. And today, I think we established forecheck, right off the bat, and first shifts in the first and second period, we illustrated what we wanted to do.”

Anaheim (18-10-1, 37 points) now takes its best start since 2014-15 off on a five-game East Coast road trip, but following their opener in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, the Ducks will settle into New York City a few days to take on the Islanders, Devils and Rangers.

Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba will make their returns to Madison Square Garden next Monday following trades in the past year from the Blueshirts to Orange County.

“I’m sure they had that on their schedule for a while,” Quenneville said. “The Beatles (Kreider, Trouba and fellow former Rangers Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano) will be getting back to New York City there when we get there, and it’ll be a good return for them all.”

  

It can’t be understated how much the Ducks controlled this game from opening puck drop to final whistle.

The Ducks scored four goals in the second period on a franchise-record 27 shots in the period. It’s a team record that’s stood since Anaheim’s inaugural season, Jan. 1, 1994 when the Ducks put 26 shots on goal in the third period at Florida.

“Everything just clicked,” Carlsson said. “Took care of the blue lines pretty good. Put it deep when we had to, just to work from there. A lot of offensive zone time.”

With 44 shots through two periods and 53 shots in the game, Anaheim was just off the pace of their biggest shooting performance in team history. The Ducks put up 45 shots through two periods and 56 total in a 4-1 Anaheim win over Ottawa on Oct. 13, 2013.

Of the Ducks 18 skaters, 17 recorded a shot on goal on Sunday, and the only one who didn’t was surprisingly Cutter Gauthier, who leads the NHL in shots per 60 minutes.

“We knew they played last night, and it’s tough playing d-zone for a majority of the night,” Killorn said. “When you got guys like Leo turning up and back, and it’s really hard on their d-men. We recovered a lot of the shots that we got from our d-men. I really liked our o-zone play.”

As Killorn said, the Ducks didn’t just dominate the shot clock. Anaheim had a complete monopoly zone time against Chicago, who lost 6-0 in Los Angeles last night, to an insane degree.

The Ducks earned 88% of the expected goals at five-on-five on Sunday, per Natural Stat Trick, which is the best single-game xGF% for as far back as the site’s data goes (2007-08 season). Anaheim’s previous best was an 84.06% expected goals share on Oct. 13, 2014 against Buffalo.

Anaheim completely titled the chances at five-on-five winning in shot attempts (76-26), scoring chances (40-8) and high-danger chances (21-2).

This was the Ducks’ fifth seven-goal game, building on their already secured franchise-record of such games in a single season.

Second power play goal of the game, second Leo Carlsson goal of the game, and the Ducks continue the goal parade on the opening shift of the third period.

6-0 Ducks. (Chicago lost 6-0 in LA last night.) #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/FlPXMVJHF2

— Zach Cavanagh (@ZachCav) December 8, 2025

It looked like the frustration was going to continue with the extra man.

Anaheim started 0-for-2 on the power play with just one shot on goal on Sunday following an 0-for-5 night on Friday. 

However, the Ducks territorial advantage domination continued in the second period, and on the third power play, Anaheim was buzzing–four shots on goal with the third on a tip from Beckett Sennecke, before the rookie slid the rebound over to Mason McTavish for the nearly empty-net finish, 2-0.

“I thought the trend started last game,” Quenneville said. “It looked like it was more predictable at creating stuff, and when I say predictable, we kind of knew where people were going. It was nice to break that stretch of having a tough time on a PP.”

Anaheim doubled the extra-man output on the opening possession of the third period. Mikael Granlund won the face-off, the Ducks entered the zone, and Jackson LaCombe fed Chris Kreider on the left flank. Kreider found Leo Carlsson in Kreider’s usual spot in the net front to stuff home Anaheim’s sixth goal of the game.

“I feel like we didn’t play great on the power play today either, but it was just nice to get one early there in the 3rd period,” Carlsson said. “We don’t find the guy in the middle too much as we did in the start. Less shots too, which is not ideal. It’s going to get better for sure.”

The Ducks were scoreless on their previous 17 power play opportunities over the last five games, with two goals on their last 28 tries and three on their last 39. Anaheim scored at least one power play goal in nine of the first 15 games of the season and did not go more than one game without a power play tally in those first 15 games.

They get rewarded tonight, but I think that we were relying on that early on in the season,” Quenneville said. “We got a stretch where we didn’t have that expected, needed power play  goal on this power play opportunity, especially later in the game. I think that if we can recapture that confidence as a unit there, I think that can really help our team game.”

Once again, Ducks 19-year-old rookie Beckett Sennecke showed off his insane skills. Following a two-point night on Friday, Sennecke replicated the feat with another goal and an assist to become just the second Ducks teenager with consecutive multi-point games (Mason McTavish did it twice in 2022-23).

It was another skillset tonight for Sennecke, who displayed his puck protection and shot on his second-period goal. Sennecke gained the zone on the rush and maintained control with the Chicago defense to his back to find enough space to rip a shot through Arvid Soderblom.

“He’s growing into the game for sure,” Carlsson said. “Stronger and better, but he’s just so, so dangerous. So, like, unpredictable with the puck, which is dangerous. He’s going to be insane in a few years too.”

Sennecke preserved his spot atop the NHL rookie scoring lead with his 23rd and 24th points of the season, and he’s still the rookie goals leader with nine. He’s now one back of the assists lead with 15.

His 24 points are already the fourth-most by a Ducks rookie in their first 30 games behind Bobby Ryan’s 29, Paul Kariya’s 26 and Trevor Zegras’ 25. Sennecke’s next game will be his 30th.