Ducks (27-21-3) continue their road trip with a visit to Calgary to take on the Flames (21-25-5).
Puck drop is set for 5 p.m. PT and will air on Victory+ and KCOP-13.
Anaheim notched its sixth-straight win on Friday, beating the Kraken, 4-2. The Ducks have only given up 10 goals over the course of their six-game winning streak.
Cutter Gauthier gave the team a 1-0 lead in the first period, while Ryan Poehling’s short-handed goal extended their lead to 2-0. The two additional goals came courtesy of a power-play goal from Chris Kreider and an empty-netter from Pavel Mintyukov.
“We had an excellent first period, and I thought we did the same in the second,” head coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had a lot of the puck, and checking-wise, support-wise, all over the ice, we had five guys basically in the play, everybody wanted the puck. We scored some timely goals -- the shorty’s always a big one -- and obviously a huge win for us here.”
Gauthier and Mintyukov each had an assist to pair with their goals.
For tonight’s game, Quenneville said he’s going with the same lineups and goalie, Lukas Dostal, considering the Ducks’ recent success; however, the team has a back-to-back and will play in Edmonton tomorrow, which may cause some tweaks.
“We’ll look at it,” Quenneville said of the scheduling lineups. “I’m leaning towards Huss [Ville Husso] tomorrow night, but every game is important right now when you look at points. But Huss, we’re comfortable with him in the net.
The six-game winning streak is the second-longest for the Ducks this season and if they beat the Flames, they’ll tie their longest streak of the year (seven consecutive games).
Those Flames are trending in an opposite direction going 0-2-1 in their last three games and currently sit in second-to-last place in the Western Division.
Despite their poor record as of late, Jeffrey Viel said they can’t let their guard down against Calgary and added how big of an opportunity this is given the date with the Oilers tomorrow.
“It’s a huge game, huge back-to-back,” Viel said. “We want to grab those points. They’re [the Flames] a team that works really hard, so we’re going to have to match that for sure. They’re a physical group, so we’re going to have to be ready for that. I think that if we play the same way we’ve been playing defensively and capitalize on our chances, then we’re gonna have a good chance to win.”
This game is a homecoming for Calgary native Olen Zellweger. While he said his parents have routinely come to Anaheim, tonight’s game is an opportunity for many members of his extended family to watch him play in person.
After going from nine-straight losses to six-straight wins, Zelly shared how the team has been able to turn the tables and get back to winning.
“I think we’ve just been playing very responsible,” he said. “We’re maybe not giving up nearly as many high-quality looks for the other team. We’re a lot tighter defensively … We know what will get enough looks to score, so sticking to that.”
Tonight’s game is the first of four regular-season games between these two teams. They’ll meet again, this time in Anaheim, on March 1.
