Panthers at Ducks preview

PANTHERS (32-27-12) at DUCKS (29-35-9)
9 p.m. ET, FS-W, FS-F, NHL.TV

The Panthers have won four in a row and another victory will move them within six points of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Florida won five straight games Nov. 2-13.
The Ducks are 5-3-0 since March 3 after posting a 3-13-0 record the previous 16 games. Anaheim is coming off a 5-3 win at the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.

Players to watch

Florida forward Jonathan Huberdeau has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in the past five games and needs one assist to give him 54 on the season and pass Viktor Kozlov in 1999-00 for the most in a season in team history.
Ducks forward Daniel Sprong has five points (four goals, one assist) in the past five games.

They said it

"We're not dead yet. We can make things interesting. We just have to keep winning. (Sunday) is another big day for us." -- Panthers coach Bob Boughner
"We've been trying to work on our game. That's the biggest thing. We spent half the season battling against ourselves, basically. Now we're taking a lot more pride in the way we want to play and the way we want to build for next season." --Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Aleksander Barkov -- Evgenii Dadonov
Frank Vatrano -- Vincent Trocheck -- Mike Hoffman
Dryden Hunt -- Riley Sheahan -- Troy Brouwer
Jamie McGinn -- Henrik Borgstrom -- Colton Sceviour
Michael Matheson -- Aaron Ekblad
Keith Yandle -- Mackenzie Weegar
Mark Pysyk -- Josh Brown
James Reimer
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Jayce Hawryluk, Roberto Luongo, Denis Malgin, Ian McCoshen
Injured: Derek MacKenzie (shoulder)

Ducks projected lineup

Nick Ritchie -- Ryan Getzlaf -- Daniel Sprong
Rickard Rakell -- Devin Shore -- Jakob Silfverberg
Troy Terry -- Adam Henrique -- Corey Perry
Max Jones -- Derek Grant -- Carter Rowney
Hampus Lindholm -- Josh Manson
Jacob Larsson -- Cam Fowler
Jaycob Megna -- Korbinian Holzer
John Gibson
Ryan Miller
Scratched: Kalle Kossila, Jacob Larsson, Andy Welinski
Injured: Chad Johnson (upper body), Brendan Guhle (upper body), Ryan Kesler (hip)
Status report
Montembeault made 24 saves in a 4-3 win at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday to improve to 4-0-1 in his first five NHL appearances. Panthers coach Bob Boughner will announce his starting goalie at 7 p.m. ET. ... Kesler has been shut down for the remainder of the season.

Stat pack

Barkov has 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in a five-game point streak. He has 81 points (30 goals, 51 assists), a new NHL career-high. ... Yandle has seven power-play goals to lead all NHL defensemen. He needs two points to give him 58 on the season, which would be the most by a defenseman in team history.