NEWARK, N.J. – Whether their body clocks hadn’t woken up for the early East Coast puck drop or the shorthanded New Jersey Devils rallied around a tight defensive effort, the Anaheim Ducks were stifled again on Saturday afternoon.
Troy Terry scored for the third straight game, but the Devils scored three unanswered goals on Ducks defensive miscues to put Anaheim to bed, 4-1, at Prudential Center.
Lukas Dostal made 18 saves in his return to the Ducks line-up after missing nine games with an upper-body injury.
This was just Anaheim’s second loss of the season when scoring first (10-2-0).
New Jersey was without nine of its regular players, including Jack Hughes, Timo Meier and Simon Nemec–all top-six on the Devils in points.
The Ducks (19-12-1, 39 points) are still tied on points for the top of the Pacific Division with the Vegas Golden Knights (15-6-9, 39 points), but Vegas has two games in hand on Anaheim, including tonight at Columbus.
The Ducks will play their fourth game of a five-game Eastern road trip at the New York Rangers on Monday, as franchise legend Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba make their first trips to Madison Square Garden after trades.
Ducks open the scoring (for once) by making something out of nothing. Devils blow a tire entering zone, Leo Carlsson spots Troy Terry flying the zone and Terry finishes on the break.
1-0 in New Jersey. #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/9wGu9fu3xn
— Zach Cavanagh (@ZachCav) December 13, 2025
After a fiery response victory over Washington last Friday and a complete domination of Chicago last Sunday, Anaheim’s offense has consistently struggled in the first three games of this road trip, including another frustrating outing on Saturday afternoon.
Anaheim didn’t record their first shot on goal until nearly 11 minutes into the opening period, but just two minutes later, the Ducks made something out of nothing to get on the board first.
The Devils lost the puck after falling while entering the offensive zone, and Leo Carlsson collected the puck and whipped it out for the breakout. Troy Terry was sprung on a breakaway, and he buried his 10th goal of the season.
Terry is on a four-game point streak with a goal in each of the last three games of this road trip.
From there, sustained offensive pressure rarely generated for Anaheim.
Yes, the Ducks did win the shots-on-goal battle, 25-19, but that was not indicative of the run of play. The Ducks blocked 19 shots, as New Jersey won the territorial battles–51.25% of shot attempts at five-on-five and 60.06% of expected goals at five-on-five.
The Ducks were also playing without the puck plenty, as New Jersey won a whopping 71.2% of the faceoffs. Leo Carlsson took the most face-offs for Anaheim but lost each one going 0-for-13 on the afternoon.
Anaheim went 0-for-3 on the power play with just four shots with the extra man. After going 2-for-5 on the power play against Chicago, the Ducks have gone 0-for-5 on the power play over the last three games and are 2-for-24 over the last eight games.
As Ducks coach Joel Quenneville has noted recently, even when the Ducks have decent defensive efforts, “grade A” scoring chances can come out of nowhere. That was certainly the case on the Devils’ first three goals in a forgettable defensive game.
New Jersey evened the score in the first period on missed coverage in the slot. Juho Lammikko beat Radko Gudas down the right wall, and while Gudas chased back into position, Lammikko threaded the puck from below the goal line to the net front.
Former Duck forward Stefan Noesen crashed the crease and outmuscled a puck-watching Drew Helleson for the tap-in goal.
In the second period, Helleson blocked a point shot, but neither he nor Mason McTavish could collect the bouncing rebound. Lammikko whacked it to the side of the net, where Paul Cotter came from behind Gudas, who had one hand on his stick, to get inside position for the go-ahead goal.
Later in the second period, McTavish collided with Cutter Gauthier on a high Devils cycle on the boards, and with the two fallen Ducks, Olen Zellweger pinched up high and Beckett Sennecke flying the zone, New Jersey jumped into the middle of the ice.
Gudas, the lone man back, committed to a slide to block the lane, but as Ondrej Palat held onto the puck, Gudas slid out of the play. Zellweger charged back to take on the other side of the net, but Cody Glass stepped into the slot for the goal, 3-1.
Through two periods, the Devils outchanced the Ducks by a wide margin, 22-10, and especially in the high-danger areas, 12-4.
“We need some battles on the wall,” Ducks captain Gudas told the Victory+ broadcast. “We brought some pucks back that we didn’t have to. We can do a little better coverage in our D zone, as well. They had some pucks shot from the middle of the ice from the center that we don’t usually give up. Those are things we have to address.”
Anaheim had a shake-up across the board following the loss to the New York Islanders. The only new player in the line-up was Ian Moore drawing in on defense for Pavel Mintyukov, but there were numerous changes outside of the first forward line and top defensive pair:
Chris Kreider-Leo Carlsson-Troy Terry
Mikael Granlund-Mason McTavish-Beckett Sennecke
Cutter-Gauthier-Ryan Strome-Frank Vatrano
Ross Johnston-Ryan Poehling-Alex Killorn
Jackson LaCombe-Jacob Trouba
Drew Helleson-Radko Gudas
However, by the start of the third period, the lines were completely put into the blender, It isn’t even worth typing them out, as each line seemingly showcased a different combination each time it came over the boards. Defensively, Zellweger and Helleson had swapped pairs.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville has done this throughout the season, constantly seeking short-term sparks mid-game or switching things up after losses. There is some wonder if not letting lines settle into chemistry is more of a hindrance than a jump-start sometimes.
After another lackluster loss, there will likely be more changes headed into Manhattan on Monday.