Anaheim Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal stood on his head as they defeated the Colorado Avalanche 2-1. The 25-year-old puck-stopper faced 41 shots and limited the best team int he NHL to a single goal.
That was Dostal’s fourth consecutive win for the Ducks, continuing a stretch of excellence for the Czech goaltender.
The win also kept the Ducks in the top three of the Pacific Division and maintaining the pace behind the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights. Despite a rough stretch, Dostal has rekindled their playoff hopes. As head coach Joel Quenneville said after their win over Colorado, the Ducks should be thanking their goalie for how well he’s played.
“Thank the goalie, for sure. I mean, that was all goalie,” he said. “I think that we did some good things in front of him, but they had some great all-alone looks on several occasions tonight.”
Ducks’ Best Player
When your team is struggling, often times your goaltender has to be the player to pull the team out of the depths of despair. When your goaltender is your best player, it takes the pressure off of everyone else.
Thankfully for Anaheim, Dostal has been their undisputed best player over this recent stretch. He’s won four of his last five starts. In those four victories, he’s faced at least 22 shots in each of those games and 25 or more in three contests, but the highest-number of goals he’s allowed is three. Dostal credited the defense in front of him after the game, despite the team allowing 41 shots on goal.
“Obviously, felt really good today,” he said. “The guys did a [heck] of a job in the defense, honestly. Like they allowed me to see the pucks whenever there was a cross-seam pass or whatever.”