Laurent Brossoit keeps Ducks net as Lukas Dostal waits

Dostal hadn't played since October 27 when he got the start against the Flames. One period later, his night was over.

"Wants saves" is the important part. Ville Husso came on and stopped all 10 shots he faced. The Ducks scored 3 in the third, Cutter Gauthier got the game-winner with 1:34 left, and Anaheim beat Calgary 5-3 to finish a sweep of its western Canada trip. That made 7 straight games with 5 or more goals, which no team had done since the 1991-92 Penguins. The offense is rolling. The question is who's going to stop pucks at the other end.

Some background on how fast this changed. Brossoit opened the season in the AHL with San Diego, where he was 2-4-0 with a.910 save percentage. He was on a 1-year deal and was basically the organization's 3rd goalie. The Ducks recalled him on October 31, in the middle of a stretch where they lost 7 of 8 to close October. Quenneville then scratched both Dostal and Husso and started Brossoit against Ottawa. He called it a wake-up for the whole defense, not just the goalies: "It's a group of five."

Brossoit kept winning. He took his first 3 starts, and Sunday against Pittsburgh he was even better. He was on track for his first shutout since April 11, 2024 until the Penguins pulled their goalie with 13 minutes left and scored 6-on-4. Quenneville agreed it was his best game of the 4 wins since the recall. Then he got asked whether the crease is an open competition now.

Andrew Knoll

@AndrewKnollNHL

#FlyTogether Quenneville on Brossoit and if there is an open competition in net now: "All's I know is that (Brossoit) has been outstanding four games in a row, so I don't think we've got to think too much further than that. Right now, you just enjoy the way he's playing."

That isn't a guy planning to go back to his normal starter. The room is behind Brossoit too. Gauthier called him "a rock" during the streak, and Granlund praised the timely saves he's made in a stint nobody saw coming. Right now the coach and the players are both saying the same thing: ride the hot goalie.

Here's the catch. Not everyone thinks goaltending was the real problem in Anaheim. When the Ducks were giving up goals in bunches, some beat writers pointed at the defense in front of the goalies.

That's fair, and it matters. Dostal is supposed to be the No. 1 here. He's supposed to clearly outplay a couple of backup-level guys, not trade starts with them. But if the breakdowns happen no matter who's in net, Brossoit's run comes from timely saves plus a power play that's scoring constantly, and it will cool off. When it does, Quenneville will have to decide whether Dostal gets the net back or the Ducks start reaching for a trade. For now Dostal is sitting and watching a 33-year-old waiver-level goalie play his position, and Quenneville sounds fine with that.