Rangers at Ducks
The New York Rangers attempt to record consecutive victories for the first time this season when they conclude a four-game road trip against the free-falling Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. New York lost 17 of 23 games (6-14-3) since winning March 12 and 14 before Kevin Shattenkirk was the only shootout scorer in a 3-2 victory at San Jose on Tuesday.
The Rangers had to wait longer to celebrate their first road victory of the season (1-4-1) after the Sharks' Tomas Hertl scored with 1.3 seconds remaining in regulation, but first-year coach David Quinn was happy nonetheless. "We did a lot of good things, played hard," Quinn told reporters. "... We've got to learn to close games out. We've got to understand situational hockey, but to come in here and get two points against a really good hockey team I think says an awful lot about our guys." Anaheim began the season 5-1-1 but has lost six straight (0-5-1) following a 3-2 loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday despite the efforts of Pontus Aberg, who has scored two goals in each of the last two games after totaling five in his first 73 career contests. "He's getting an opportunity to play with our best players," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle told reporters about Aberg, who joined Ryan Getzlaf and Rickard Rakell on the top line midway through Sunday's 4-3 overtime loss to San Jose.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), Prime Ticket (Anaheim)
ABOUT THE RANGERS (4-7-1): Chris Kreider scored twice Tuesday, giving him a team-high six goals, while Mats Zuccarello added a goal and an assist to join Mika Zibanejad for the club lead with 10 points. Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich (each plus-2) are the only forwards with a plus rating while defenseman Neal Pionk is a club-worst minus-8 while playing a team-high 22 minutes, 59 seconds per game. Henrik Lundqvist (3-6-1, 2.77 goals-against average, .917 save percentage) snapped a four-game losing streak Tuesday (0-3-1) after boasting a .939 save percentage in his first five contests of the season.
ABOUT THE DUCKS (5-6-2): Injuries continue to plague Anaheim, which hasn't lost seven in a row since a 0-6-1 run in November 2011, as defenseman Josh Manson didn't play Tuesday because of a lower-body injury and Nick Ritchie missed his second straight game (upper body). The Ducks have been without forwards Patrick Eaves (shoulder) and Corey Perry (knee) all season while promising rookie Max Comtois (two goals, seven points in his first 10 career games) is on injured reserve (lower body). Anaheim averages an NHL-low 24.5 shots and yields a league-most 38.8 with John Gibson (4-4-2, 2.44, .938) facing an NHL-high 384 shots.
OVERTIME
1. The Ducks are 1-for-14 on the power play during their slide while New York is 0-for-9 with the man advantage over its last three games.
2. Rangers D Adam McQuaid (16:14 ice time, minus-2 in eight games) has missed the last two contests with a lower-body injury.
3. The clubs have split the last four meetings with Anaheim winning its home games 6-3 and the Rangers prevailing 4-1 each time at Madison Square Garden.