The Ducks (19-10-1) head to New York to take on the Islanders (17-11-3) in the second match of their five-game road trip.
Puck drop is set for 4 p.m. PT and will air on Victory+ and KCOP-13.
Anaheim notched its third win in a row on Tuesday in a 4-3 shootout victory against the Penguins. A shootout win is exciting enough, but the team wouldn’t have even gotten there if it were not for Beckett Sennecke’s short-handed, game-tying goal with one-tenth of a second left in regulation.
“I’ve seen some crazy endings,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “I’ve seen an overtime game in the playoffs comparable, but not as dramatic in the dying second. You don’t know if it was in or not before the bell rung. But, hey, we’re very fortunate to come out of there with two points.”
With his goal, Sennecke became the first rookie to hit 25 points this season and passed Mason McTavish to become the fastest teenage player to reach 25 points in Ducks franchise history. He did it in just 30 games compared to McTavish’s 40.
The Ducks continue to surprise many this season as they remain atop the Pacific Division with 39 points and they’re a team the Islanders aren’t taking lightly.
“[They’re] a very well-coached team,” said Anthony Duclair. “They made a lot of adjustments over the summer. They’re a dangerous team. They’ve been having a great year [and] they have a lot of good, young guys buzzing since game one. We’ve got to make sure we stay out of the box, they can make you pay on the power play, making sure we’re playing well and tight defensively and not giving them too much open space because they’ll hurt you.”
The Islanders are coming off a shootout victory of their own, beating the Golden Knights 5-4 on Tuesday. Bo Horvat leads the team in points (31) and goals (19) while Matthew Barzal is second on the team in points (23) with nine goals and 14 assists.
Chris Kreider knows the Islanders well, after spending 13 seasons in the same division with the Rangers. He discussed what makes this opponent dangerous, especially because they’ve won four of their last five games and have nine come-from-behind wins this season.
“They’re a high-powered offense,” Kreider said. “Able to generate chances, able to capitalize on their chances. Good special teams. Just a good team in general. Very good challengefor us here.”
