ANAHEIM, Calif. – Just how they drew it up, the Anaheim Ducks enter the three-week Olympic break on a hot streak and in a Stanley Cup Playoff position with 26 games to go.

The Ducks ground their way to a 4-0 lead and held on for a 4-2 victory over the visiting Seattle Kraken, their ninth in 11 games, in front of a sellout crowd at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Anaheim closed out its pre-Olympic schedule with back-to-back wins against divisional foes in front of them in the standings for a 6-2-0 record against Pacific Division teams over this 11-game stretch of success coming out of a nine-game winless streak.

“This game was huge with those two points going into the break,” American Olympian Jackson LaCombe said, “and I think our team is doing a great job at buying into what we want to do. I think it was committing to playing better defense. Obviously, that’s showing over our stretch here.”

Cutter Gauthier netted his 25th goal of the season to become just the third Duck to hit that mark over the last six seasons, joining Troy Terry and Frank Vatrano. Jacob Trouba scored in the final minute of the second period, and Alex Killorn scored in the first minute of the third period, as Anaheim pulled away to leapfrog the Kraken in the standings.

LaCombe registered two assists, and Jansen Harkins posted two assists, with the second on a goalie turnover behind the net to set up Ross Johnston for a 4-0 lead.

“Pretty gritty,” Harkins said. “It didn’t really break open at any point. I think we just stayed patient and, at one point I was four-nothing. So I think that’s just kind of been our mindset these last couple weeks here is just being patient and sticking to our game, and at the end of 60, I think we should be the better team.”

Czech Olympic netminder Lukáš Dostál made 26 saves for Anaheim to outduel German Olympic netminder Philipp Grubauer’s 27 saves for Seattle.

The Ducks reached the 30-win plateau in its 56th game of the season, the quickest Anaheim has hit that mark since 2014-15 (46 games). That also guarantees the Ducks will have the most wins in the Pacific Division entering the Olympic break, which begins in full on Friday.

“I thought we had a real purpose in both these games (against Vegas on Sunday and Seattle today),” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said, “knowing the meaning of how they were gonna sort out the playoff spots at the end. We put ourselves–we want to be a part of that, right down to the end.”

Anaheim (30-23-3, 63 points) broke a points tie with Seattle (26-20-9, 61 points) to jump into third place in the Pacific Division just one point off the leaders Vegas (25-16-14, 64 points) and Edmonton (28-21-8, 64 points). 

Vegas has one game in hand on the Ducks, but the Knights will play two games before the break. Edmonton has played one more game than Anaheim and plays one more tomorrow.

Seattle falls behind Central Division wild-card Utah (29-23-4, 62 points) into the second wild card spot one point ahead of Los Angeles (23-17-14, 60 points). The Kraken play the Kings in LA tomorrow.

The Kings have two games in hand on the Ducks, and play two games before the break. Seattle has one game in hand on Anaheim, which they’ll cover in LA.

Looking to snap a seven-season playoff drought, Anaheim returns to play for the final 26 games of the regular season on Feb. 25 at home against Edmonton.

In a grinding game where open ice was at a premium, the Ducks embodied the “any shot on net is a good shot on net” philosophy, as it wasn’t their best chances that found the back of the net but their most opportunistic and timely.

“Some games, the puck kind of just finds you down low,” Jansen Harkins said, “and I think we did a good job just anticipating the play in the O-zone and getting pucks back on the forecheck. I think being close together, lots of support, and then once we got moving, the space kind of opened up for us.”

As the Ducks’ first power play of the game expired early in the second period, LaCombe maintained possession at the point and flubbed a pass intended for Cutter Gauthier in the right circle. Gauthier took a couple catch-up steps to corral the puck and whip it on net through traffic and by a surprised Philipp Grubauer for the lead, 1-0.

Later in the middle frame, Seattle hounded the Ducks on a nearly two-minute defensive shift, as Anaheim couldn’t cleanly clear the puck and the Kraken got fresh reinforcements over the boards to maintain the pressure. The Ducks held the fort and mercifully got a clear with under 90 seconds to play in the period.

At the end of the next shift, Jacob Trouba hopped over the boards and immediately stepped into a blast to double the Ducks’ lead, 2-0, with just 33 seconds remaining in the period.

“They had a couple shifts there right before that were in their favor, and it was a dangerous couple shifts,” Joel Quenneville said, “and it was a one-nothing game. Anything could happen. We saw that the first two times we played them, where we might have territorially had an advantage, but they’re patient, and they play a smart team game. And that was huge, and Obviously, the third one was big, as well.”

“So, it’s timely, and we’ll take it.”

Goals at the beginning or end of periods are absolute killers, and that rolled into the third period.

Alex Killorn had a free look at the net, and with Ryan Poehling causing havoc in front, Killorn zinged a shot through the five hole of a tied up Grubauer for a 3-0 Ducks lead 24 seconds into the final 20 minutes.

Ducks fourth goal was even more fortunate, as Grubauer mishandled a puck behind the net late in the third period. Jansen Harkins brought the pressure and fed the loose puck to Ross Johnston in front for the empty net, 4-0.That was a season hat trick for Johnston, tying a career-high of three goals in a season. It’s the third career three-goal campaign for the bruising Johnston, who pushes his career-high scoring season to 13 points.

Ducks recognize their four Olympians on the ice and six total in the system before the Games begin in Milan next week.

Lukáš Dostál 🇨🇿
Radko Gudas 🇨🇿
Mikael Granlund 🇫🇮
Jackson LaCombe 🇺🇸
Leo Carlsson 🇸🇪 (injured)
Damian Clara 🇮🇹 (prospect)@SportingTrib | #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/7Qx5f09dgh

— Zach Cavanagh (@ZachCav) February 4, 2026

Prior to puck drop in the last game before the Olympic break, Anaheim’s four on-ice Olympians and six total in the Ducks system were recognized.

Czech goaltender Lukas Dostal will skate in his first Olympics alongside countryman, captain and defenseman Radko Gudas, who makes his second Olympic appearance for Czechia. Finnish forward Mikael Granlund will play in his second Winter Games after winning a bronze medal the last time NHL players went to the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

American defenseman Jackson LaCombe was a late injury replacement for Team USA, but he will go to his first Olympics after making his senior Team USA debut just last summer, as the Americans won their first World Championship gold in 92 years.

Swedish forward Leo Carlsson was named to the Olympic roster last month, but as he continues to recover from a procedure on a Morel-Lavalée lesion on his thigh, he was not set to be healthy for the Games. Carlsson is nearly three weeks into his three-to-five-week recovery timeline.

Also heading to Milan and skating for the host country is Italian Ducks prospect Damian Clara. The 6-foot-6, 21-year-old goaltender is currently playing for Bryäs IF in Sweden.

Seattle featured three Olympians on Tuesday, including German goaltender Philipp Grubauer and Finnish forwards Kaapo Kakko and Eeli Tolvanen.

The Olympic men’s hockey tournament begins in Milan on Feb. 11.

The Ducks are one of a handful of teams to enter the Olympic break a few days early. The last NHL games before the break are Thursday.

With the Olympic break comes a pause in league activities.

There will be a trade freeze in effect beginning at noon Pacific (3 p.m. EST) tomorrow (Feb. 4) that will last through 11:59 p.m. EST on Feb. 22.

While the Olympic tournament lasts through the gold medal game on Feb. 22, all players not at the Olympics can return to practice with their teams on Feb. 17 at 2 p.m. local time.

The NHL returns to game action on Feb. 25.