Ducks at Coyotes
The Anaheim Ducks look to avoid going into the postseason off three straight losses when they visit the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night. The Ducks are also tied with St. Louis, which hosts Minnesota on Saturday afternoon, atop the West with 107 points and Anaheim owns the tiebreaker for home-ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
The Ducks dropped their last two games at home against Colorado and Dallas – two non-playoff teams – and could use a strong effort in the finale for their confidence. Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf was rested the last two contests and the team’s leading scorer could be in the lineup against the Coyotes, who have the second-least points in the league (56) and dropped five of their last six. Anaheim hopes to cure its struggling power play, which is 1-of-20 the last 10 games, against one of the worst penalty-killing units in the league (76.4 percent). The Ducks are 7-0-2 in their last nine against Arizona – 2-0-2 this season.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN West (Anaheim), FSN Arizona-Plus
ABOUT THE COYOTES (24-49-8): Arizona will go without a playoff appearance for the third straight season and has the least wins in a full campaign since 2003-04 when it recorded only 22. The Coyotes are 29th in the league in scoring and 28th in goals-against as goaltender Mike Smith has struggled through a difficult season with 14 wins and a .903 save percentage. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has continued to show that he is a building block for the future with a team-leading 23 goals and 43 points.
ABOUT THE DUCKS (50-24-7): Anaheim has reached 50 wins for the second time in its history and went 8-2-0 before the recent two-game slide that included a 4-0 loss at home to the Stars on Wednesday. “It didn’t seem like we had any energy or life,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters after that game. Goalie Frederik Andersen, who has yet to be named the starter for the first game of the playoffs despite 34 victories, has won three of his last four decisions and John Gibson is 10-4-0 after a slow start to his season.
OVERTIME
1. Anaheim RW Corey Perry has a team-high 33 goals in 66 games and is second behind Getzlaf (68) in points with 54.
2. Arizona C Mark Arcobello has a career-high 17 goals while playing with four different teams this season – nine in 26 games with the Coyotes.
3. Anaheim's Hampus Lindholm is second among defensemen in the league with a plus-26 rating behind Tampa Bay’s Jason Garrison (plus-27).