ANAHEIM — The Ducks faced six different deficits but surmounted them all to beat the New York Rangers, 5-4 in overtime, on Friday night at Honda Center. They moved to a .500 points percentage for the season – they haven’t finished .500 or above since 2018 – while the Rangers lost for the nin th time in a dozen opportunities. Leo Carlsson scored a goal and facilitated three others: Alex Killorn’s short-handed tally, Cutter Gauthier’s putback and Olen Zellweger’s late equalizer. Gauthier’s first assist and Jackson LaCombe’s second led to Mason McTavish’s redirection for the comeback-capping overtime winner. Lukáš Dostál made 26 saves. New York’s J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniére assisted on each other’s goals. Artemi Panarin set one up for Adam Fox, and they both earned helpers on Mika Zibanejad’s power-play marker. Igor Shesterkin extended his career-long string of starts to nine, stopping 28 shots. While McTavish was the hero in the bonus session, Carlsson factored into every single goal in regulation, with a goal, two primary assists and a secondary one. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off concluded 17 games ago, McTavish has 17 points and Carlsson, who represented Sweden, has 16. Carlsson said it “felt amazing” to create four goals. In doing so, he passed Paul Kariya for the third-most multipoint games (14) for a Ducks player aged 20 or younger. “Since the 4 Nations tournament, (Carlsson) has come back and it seems like he has more pace to his game, and he has more explosiveness,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. In overtime, it took just 59 seconds for LaCombe and Gauthier’s pitch-and-catch sequence to masterfully open up a quick tap for McTavish, giving him his first 20-goal campaign and his first game-winner of the season. During the third period, the Ducks scored three goals and killed four of five penalties, including a substantial chunk of five-on-three time. They sent the game to OT off Zellweger’s tally trailing the rush, set up by Carlsson’s reversal to Pavel Mintyukov, who found Zellweger entering the zone with 1:45 to play in regulation. “As a defenseman, you see (Carlsson) going up the ice with the puck, and you want to follow him up because he can cut back and hit you, or he can drive wide and make a play,” Zellweger said. “He’s been great; it’s been awesome to watch.” With 5:48 on the game clock, Gauthier’s backhanded follow-up bid beat Shesterkin cleanly to slice the Rangers’ lead in half. LaCombe’s neutral-zone takeaway set up a shot for Carlsson, creating the meaty rebound for Gauthier’s 15th goal of 2024-25. The Ducks had gained life 2:22 into the third period but things threatened to unravel shortly after Carlsson twice moved the puck ahead for himself to gain speed up ice, challenging Will Borgen and lifting a shot over Shesterkin on the stick side. The gust from his 19th goal and fifth in five games would prove ephemeral. Soon after, Ducks defenseman and former Rangers captain Jacob Trouba exited the game after crashing into the boards and the Rangers scored five-on-four. The Blueshirts’ big guns of Panarin and Fox worked to engineer Zibanejad’s one-timer from the left circle, 2:13 after Carlsson’s goal. “Pat (Verbeek) and his staff did a lot of work scouting (Carlsson) when they drafted him. I remember asking Pat about him, ‘Is he a playmaker or is he a goal-scorer?’” Cronin said. “He said, ‘he can do both, he’s got an elite shot.’ We weren’t seeing that a lot early, but now we’re starting to see it.” The second period sent the Ducks to the dressing room down 3-1, despite having a two-man advantage of their own. A brief 14 seconds into the middle frame, the Rangers extended their edge off Lafreniére’s short-side snipe. New York had taken a lead with 2:12 to play in the opening period, when Miller snuck up the left flank to make it a three-on-two rush off before notching his third goal in as many games. Killorn had quelled the Rangers momentum with a short-handed equalizer less than two minutes before New York reassumed control. Carlsson was one of three Ducks penalty killers stuffing Johnny Brodzinski’s shot attempt from the low slot. Carlsson recovered the puck, chipped it ahead to himself and then sent a buttery pass across to an open Killorn, who drove his lane cleanly all the way to the net. Just as K’Andre Miller appeared to have caught him, Killorn flicked a quick bid off Shesterkin and then followed his own shot for his 18th goal. He has three goals and five points in his past four games. The Ducks mounted an 11-3 shot advantage at one point and drew the evening’s first penalty. But a near miss, Jansen Harkins’ tip attempt that hit the post, and some misfortune made it so that the Rangers garnered the first goal of the game. At the 3:20 mark, 26 seconds after the Rangers’ penalty expired, calamity befell the Ducks. First, LaCombe’s stick broke on a routine pass, giving the Rangers a rush with just one defender, Gudas, back. The puck came to their most dangerous player, Panarin, but LaCombe recovered to help Gudas pressure him into a shot that missed the net, clanging off the end boards. It bounced directly to Fox, who lifted a backhand up under the crossbar to open the scoring. UP NEXT The Ducks play host to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday at 5 p.m. Related Articles Ducks look to deny another ‘Original Six’ underachiever Leo Carlsson, Ducks hand struggling Bruins another loss Ducks look to hand Bruins their 7th consecutive loss Ducks’ playoff hopes dwindle with loss to Carolina Ducks’ 5-game homestand doesn’t start easy with Carolina ...read more read less