Penner to return to Ducks lineup

ANAHEIM – Dustin Penner will return to the lineup for the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames.

Penner skated on the top line with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry at the morning skate. He missed the previous game because of a lower-body injury.

“He looked good enough to play,” Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Whether I play him is a different story, but he looked good enough to play.”

Calgary has a 16-game losing streak in Anaheim dating to its last win here on Jan. 19, 2004. Both sides typically downplay the statistic and the Ducks didn’t put much into it.

“The media’s the only one who ever knows that stuff,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “The players in the room don’t know. We go on a year-to-year basis. Obviously you have some sort rivalries with different teams, but between the media and the coaches, those are probably the only people that know those streaks are intact.”

Here are the expected lineups:

CALGARY FLAMES

Curtis Glencross – Ben Street – Lee Stempniak

Sven Baertschi – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler

Lance Bouma – Mikael Backlund – TJ Galiardi

Tim Jackman – Joe Colborne – Brian McGrattan

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie

Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman

Chris Butler – Shane O’Brien

Joey MacDonald

Karri Ramo

Injured: Matt Stajan (leg), Michael Cammalleri (hand), David Jones (upper body)

Scratched: Derek Smith

NOTES: Calgary coach Bob Hartley acknowledged this will be a test for players like Sean Monahan, who could face Anaheim’s top line because Anaheim has the last line change.

“It’s going to be a new situation for Monny because, early on in Washington or Columbus, teams were not paying too much attention to him,” Hartley said. “Now that he’s producing, I’m sure that teams will be well aware of him when he’s going to be on the ice. But on the flip side, I rarely saw a young player learn and improve at his pace.”

ANAHEIM DUCKS

Dustin Penner – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry

Jakob Silfverberg – Mathieu Perreault – Teemu Selanne

Daniel Winnik – Saku Koivu – Andrew Cogliano

Kyle Palmieri – Nick Bonino – Emerson Etem

Hampus Lindholm – Francois Beauchemin

Cam Fowler – Ben Lovejoy

Bryan Allen – Sami Vatanen

Viktor Fasth

Jonas Hiller

Injured: Matt Beleskey (hand), Luca Sbisa (ankle), Sheldon Souray (wrist)

Scratched: Devante Smith-Pelly, Mark Fistric

NOTES: Fasth was first off the ice and will start against the Flames. Boudreau had his first difficult decision of the season because Jonas Hiller is hot, having allowed one goal his past two starts.

“I don’t know,” Boudreau said when asked about his rotation. “Hilly’s been really good the last two games. Viktor was really good in Winnipeg [on Oct.6]. Sometimes it’s like pitchers in baseball. We just look at how they’ve done against that team and play that goalie.”

Boudreau added that both goalies will see action in this homestand. Hiller is 5-4-1 with a 2.77 goals-against average against Calgary while Fasth recorded a shutout in his only appearance against the Flames.

Ducks right wing Devante Smith-Pelly was reassigned to the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League.