Laurent Brossoit wins Ducks debut as Anaheim stuns Ottawa
TLDR: Laurent Brossoit survived a 3-0 hole in his Anaheim debut, made 20 saves and got his first NHL win since April 18, 2024 as the Ducks rallied past Ottawa 6-3.
It did not start like a feel-good story. Ottawa scored 3 times in the first period, the Honda Center booed, and the jokes about the new goalie started right away.
Wait, so Brossoit wasn't the answer? t.co/CvGlI19dwx
That sarcasm aged badly. Thomas Chabot, Michael Amadio and Claude Giroux all scored in the opening 20, and then Brossoit shut the door. Anaheim tied it 3-3 by the end of the second, Cutter Gauthier put them ahead 1:50 into the third, and the Ducks pulled away with 3 goals in the final period. The power play did most of the damage, going 4-for-5.
Down 3-0 and booed off the ice, Ducks rise up and beat Senators, 6-3, behind big second period and four power-play goals. Cutter Gauthier with hat trick, Judd Caufield scores twice, Roger McQueen adds a goal. Laurent Brossoit (20 saves) very solid after opening 20 to win debut.
Gauthier had the hat trick, with 2 of his goals coming on the power play in the third. Judd Caulfield scored twice, rookie Roger McQueen added 1, and Leo Carlsson had 3 assists. Jonas Johansson made 27 saves for Ottawa and still gave up 6. Brossoit's night came down to a couple of real saves after the first period, and one of them was the kind you only make by playing aggressively.
Brossoit challenges high, great instincts and a tough stop. No way he saves that playing deeper.
Why this matters: Brossoit is 33 and wasn't supposed to be playing NHL games this season. Anaheim signed him on July 1 to a one-year, $1.1 million deal as the No. 3 goalie behind Lukas Dostal and Ville Husso, and he started the year in San Diego until the Ducks called him up Saturday. He missed all of 2024-25 after meniscus surgery, then missed the start of last season recovering from hip surgery, and he got into just 1 NHL game with San Jose. This was his second NHL game in 3 seasons, and he's only 3 years removed from winning a Stanley Cup in Vegas, where he went 5-2 in the 2023 playoffs.
Put that together and you get a guy who hadn't won an NHL game since April 18, 2024. Brossoit was honest about how long it had been.
"I was hoping it wouldn't take years between wins, personally, but here we are. It feels amazing, no matter how you shake it up, and it was pretty cool that it happened in such an exciting game." #FlyTogether Brossoit
Some perspective is needed here. One win over Ottawa doesn't solve Anaheim's goaltending, and the Ducks have now won just 2 of their last 9, so they're not out of trouble. Still, a team that needed somebody to steady things in net got 40 straight minutes of exactly that from a goalie who'd spent 2 years getting knocked out by injuries. The beat writer who joked about him early came around by the end of the night.
Next up is whether Anaheim keeps going to him. Brossoit has a career.910 save percentage over 141 NHL games, so he isn't some random call-up. If the Ducks keep giving up goals in bunches, the guy who stopped the bleeding against Ottawa has a strong case for another start.
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