Ducks push back on physical Jets in 4-2 Game 1 win

ANAHEIM – The Ducks were supposed to be the weaker team in their first round series against Winnipeg – at least from an overall physical strength perspective.

The Jets had Dustin Byfuglien of the ‘260 pounds' and Tyler Myers of the 6-foot-8 frame. The shortest player on their first line with Drew Stafford, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler was the 6-foot-2 Stafford – who plays two inches bigger.

This made the Jets a trendy upset pick against the supposedly ‘softer’ Ducks. Instead, this physicality brought Anaheim’s game from Donald to Darkwing Duck levels in a 4-2 Game 1 win.

The Ducks got dangerous…

If the Jets pushed, the Ducks pushed back. Maybe they hid their bruises under their postgame grins. But ultimately, Winnipeg’s physical nature engaged Anaheim into the series quickly.

“When they’re playing physical, we have to match it right away,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “If you’re playing a team that’s a skating team that doesn’t want to hit, it’s hard to get involved in that game. They play a physical game. They play a physical game, we play a physical game, they’re a big team, we’re a big team and that’s what happens when two good teams meet.”

While hits can be an arbitrary stat at times, for this game they actually proved accurate for how bruising the contest turned, and how the Ducks kept pace with the Jets.

Here are the overall game totals:

Period 1

Jets 20, Ducks 19

Period 2

Jets 32, Ducks 32

Period 3

Ducks 46, Jets 37

Ottawa’s slugfest with Montreal on Wednesday produced a total of 86 hits just, three more than the Ducks and Jets.

If Thursday is any indication, this series is going to be bloody, bone crushing and hopefully played efficiently within the whistles.

“You know what? I thought it was a good clean hockey game,” Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “I was impressed both ways. A lot of times playoff games can get a little out of hand, and guys do stupid things. I thought both teams played a good, honest game tonight, and we were lucky to come on top.”

And both teams stayed true to form, the Jets with their rubbing, grinding style and the Ducks with their two-period rope-a-dope before coming alive in the third period.

During the third period this season, the Ducks outscored their opponents 85-71. Something magical comes over them in that last 20 minutes. It has to be magic since we are so close to Disney Land here in SoCal.

Down 2-1 entering the final frame, Corey Perry scored on the power play 1:09 into the period to tie the contest at 2-2. Then Perry scored again at the 13:21 mark, a goal that barely beat Ondrej Pavelec for the game-winner. Perry put his arms up immediately knowing it was in, though play continued. And after play stopped, the goal was reviewed, and it was indeed called a score.

“I thought (the game) was everything it was going to be,” Perry said. “There’s some big hits out there. There’s some big boys on both teams and they were laying bodies. It’s only going to get more physical and become more of a grind.”

It was only Game 1 of a first round playoff series, but the Ducks needed this. Even though Anaheim won five of its last seven games of the regular season, the Jets were a sexy pick, because of their size, and solid regular season puck possession numbers.

In this game, not only were the Ducks just as physical as the Jets, their 5-on-5 puck possession was better than Winnipeg’s at a 62.22 percent CF% to the Jets’ 37.78 percent per Natural Stat Trick.

Again, it’s just one game, but Anaheim did what it had to do. As for the rest of this series, Boudreau can sense it’s going to be a long one.

“That’s the beginning of potentially seven (games),” he said.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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