Ducks at Stars
The Anaheim Ducks need to rediscover their offense when they continue their four-game road trip against the Dallas Stars on Friday. The Ducks dropped a 2-0 decision to St. Louis on Thursday to fall to 1-1-0 on the trek and have mustered just two goals in their last three contests overall. After sitting out the first two games of the road trip, Frederik Andersen looks to rebound after yielding four goals on 37 shots in a 4-1 setback to San Jose on Sunday and will face a Dallas club out for revenge after being bounced in six games by Anaheim in the first round of the last season's playoffs.
The Stars suffered their second straight setback Tuesday, a 4-3 overtime loss to St. Louis. Tyler Seguin continued his torrid stretch with a goal and an assist, but his high-sticking penalty 14 seconds into overtime led to Vladimir Tarasenko capping his first career hat trick by scoring 74 ticks later for the Blues. Seguin and captain Jamie Benn each are riding seven-game point streaks, with the former collecting seven tallies and eight assists and the latter scoring five goals and set up six others.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FSN West (Anaheim), FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE DUCKS (8-3-0): Coach Bruce Boudreau didn't mince words when asked what needed to improve heading into Friday's contest. "Our giveaways were immense out there," he said. "The unforced errors - they bug you. We'll go back to the drawing board for Dallas." Boudreau credited the play of his fourth line, noting that the trio of Emerson Etem, Rickard Rakell and Tim Jackman worked hard and cycled the puck while "the other guys were too cute."
ABOUT THE STARS (4-2-3): Trevor Daley scored his fourth goal of the season, with all four coming on the power play. The surge with the man advantage is an unexpected one for the defenseman, who hadn't scored more than two in any of his first 10 seasons in the NHL. Dallas has netted a power-play tally in six straight games (7-for-24) after going just 1-for-8 in its initial three contests of the season.
OVERTIME
1. Dallas G Kari Lehtonen, who owns a 9-7-3 career record versus Anaheim, has guided his team to at least a point in all seven of his starts this season (4-0-3).
2. The Ducks are 0-for-5 on the power play during their road trip after going 5-for-18 in their previous four games.
3. Stars D Jamie Oleksiak scored his first career goal on Tuesday after mustering just two assists in his previous 27 NHL contests.