Ducks clinch home ice for first round of playoffs with 4-0 win over the Blackhawks

The biggest roar from the Honda Center crowd came when the outcome had long been decided.

Goalie John Gibson sprawled to make a save on Chicago Blackhawks forward Nick Schmaltz, one of his 37 stops on a night that seemed to encapsulate where the Ducks are even as they deal with injuries.

Gibson is back to form, and the Ducks got goals from all four lines in a 4-0 win Thursday that clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Gibson and the Ducks faced a patchwork Chicago lineup, but he was still forced into high-quality saves for his 12th career shutout, including one on Tomas Jurco in the second period. Ducks coach Randy Carlyle summed up what he liked best about the game in two words.

“Our goalie,� Carlyle said.

Corey Perry, Chris Wagner, Ryan Kesler and Rickard Rakell scored as the Ducks enter Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Kings on a 13-game point streak (10-0-3), the longest active streak in the NHL.

“We’re playing well,� Gibson said. “At this time of the year, you want to be playing well to carry the momentum into the playoffs.�

The win came in their first game without injured Cam Fowler and third without injured Hampus Lindholm. Jaycob Megna was recalled and made his NHL debut, paired with Brandon Montour.

The Ducks’ injury front took on more water as center Nate Thompson was scratched because of a day-to-day upper-body injury. But it was the new-look bottom-six forward group that produced a 2-0 lead.

Wagner finished a fine setup from Ondrej Kase for a two-game goal-scoring streak. Kesler lifted a slick pass from Andrew Cogliano high into the net for his 22nd goal, and Rakell’s 33rd goal came on a tip of Ryan Getzlaf’s shot to finish the scoring.

Perry started it with a tap-in goal, his 19th, on a tic-tac-toe sequence in the first period.

“I think we’re playing the right way and everybody’s starting to play as a unit,� Perry said. “Everybody’s starting to fit into their role. We’re rolling four lines, and it’s creating havoc on the other end.�

That other end wasn’t what it normally is. Chicago, with its top spot secured, rested stars Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, and did not have Niklas Hjarlmarsson because of a family matter.

Like Tuesday, it turned chippy and Nick Ritchie was given a match penalty for sending Chicago’s Michal Rozsival to the trainer’s room with one punch. Under NHL rules, a match penalty carries an automatic suspension until the league reviews it.

Hometown story

It so happened that Megna’s debut came against the Blackhawks after he grew up in Chicago and attended games “even before they got as good as they are now� he said.

“The United Center was kind of a ghost town and now it’s rocking every night. You can’t get a ticket. It’s unbelievable.�

It was a fairly long path to the NHL for the 6-foot-6 Megna, a seventh-round draft pick in 2012 and a stay-at-home type who led the American Hockey League with a plus-33 rating. He was stuck behind the Ducks’ deep defenseman depth chart and kept plugging away. He got the call in Stockton.

“It’s something you’ve been working for your whole life,� Megna said. “It finally happens, and you don’t even know what to do. But it’s very exciting. My parents are really excited.�

One of the first people that Megna talked to was his brother, Jayson, a forward with the Vancouver Canucks.

“He was so fired up,� Jaycob Megna said.

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