Preview: Ducks Open Five-Game Homestand Tonight vs. Hurricanes

The Ducks kick off a five-game homestand tonight against one of the league's top teams, hosting the Carolina Hurricanes at Honda Center.

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Anaheim returns to home ice after a 1-1-1 road trip that ended Thursday night with a 4-1 victory in Nashville. The Ducks trailed 1-0 after the opening period that night, but would claim full control with three goals in the middle frame and 33 saves from John Gibson in his return from injury.

"I thought we were good after the 10-minute mark of the first period," head coach Greg Cronin said. "We started to get some forechecking time and zone time. When we're on our game and we're getting pucks back on the forecheck, it leads to more offensive zone time...We're getting more comfortable with it and we built off of that throughout the game."

Gibson earned his 203rd NHL victory in the win over the Preds and now sits just three wins shy of J.S. Giguere's franchise record.

"He was great, he made some unbelievable saves in the third period," said Trevor Zegras, whose two-point night helped sparked Anaheim's offense in the second. "Mr. Orange County. He's got that nickname for a reason. I don't know how much time he missed but it looked like none at all. We're always very happy to have him between the pipes."

With the win, Anaheim improved to 30-31-8 on the season but the club now sits 11 points out of a playoff position.

"There's incremental growth," Cronin said. "As we get more and more familiar with playoff-type games, they'll have to make adjustments that increase the percentages of us being successful. Some of that is puck management, some is decisions on changes. We're a young team. As you saw in the Dallas game, in the second period we got caught on a long shift. You can't have those in playoff games. They're learning. You always try to accelerate the learning curve. They're seeing it, now they have do it."

The Ducks have 13 games left on the regular season schedule, eight of which will be played at Honda Center. Anaheim will host Carolina, Boston, Toronto, San Jose and the Rangers over the next two weeks.

Carolina visits first, eagerly looking to shake off a 7-2 beating last night from the Kings. The Hurricanes own the league's sixth-ranked defense, but surrendered three goals in each of the first two periods, ultimately snapping an NHL-best eight-game winning streak.

“Sometimes it happens in hockey," Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour told NHL.com's Dan Greenspan. “They made some nice plays and then made some great shots from their chances early and then the game gets out of hand.”

Anaheim tonight looks to complete a season sweep of Carolina, after earning a 3-2 OT victory in Raleigh earlier this season. Cutter Gauthier scored twice in that game, including his first career overtime winner.

The Hurricanes (42-23-4, 88 points) sit second in the Metropolitan Division.