Red Wings at Ducks
Tomas Tatar has answered a four-game scoring drought by collecting a goal and two assists in the first two contests of a seven-game road trip. The 26-year-old looks to continue his offensive surge on Wednesday when the Detroit Red Wings visit the Ducks, against whom he recorded his first career hat trick last month.
Tatar notched a pair of assists for his fourth multi-point performance of the season in Sunday's 5-4 overtime loss to Toronto in the Centennial Classic, resulting in Detroit's seventh loss in 10 outings (3-5-2). Fellow forward Anthony Mantha scored twice and added an assist in that contest to extend his point streak to six games (five goals, four assists) and set up two tallies in the previous encounter with Anaheim. John Gibson surrendered two goals on 11 shots in relief in that meeting but established a career high with 51 saves to match a franchise record in the Ducks' 4-3 shootout victory over Philadelphia on New Year's Day. Ryan Kesler registered his fourth career hat trick in the tilt versus the Flyers and began a stretch of nine points (three goals, six assists) in eight games by setting up two tallies last month against the Red Wings.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, FSN West (Anaheim)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (16-16-5): A punchless power play has plagued Detroit, which is 1-for-36 in its last nine games and has been held without a goal with the man advantage on the road since Oct. 19. "That's crazy," defenseman Niklas Kronwall told the Detroit Free Press. "That really is crazy. But again, we talk about different things – again, power play, if you get one or two, it's a different game. That is going to be the biggest key. Moving forward, we have to get our power play going." Veteran Thomas Vanek had the Red Wings' one power-play tally in that stretch and rides a four-game point streak (two goals, two assists) into the game with Anaheim, against which he set up a pair of tallies last month.
ABOUT THE DUCKS (19-12-8): Captain Ryan Getzlaf sustained a lower-body injury on Sunday and is considered "day-to-day" by coach Randy Carlyle heading into Wednesday's contest. Anaheim elected to recall fellow forward Chris Wagner from San Diego of the American Hockey League on Tuesday as insurance should the team be without Getzlaf, who recorded one of his team-leading 25 assists versus Detroit last month. The 25-year-old Wagner scored twice in 21 appearances with Anaheim this season and four goals and two assists with a plus-1 rating in 11 games with the Gulls.
OVERTIME
1. Anaheim C Rickard Rakell scored two of his team-leading 16 goals in the first encounter with Detroit.
2. Red Wings C Dylan Larkin has three points (one goal, two assists) in his last four games and also tallied in the first meeting with the Ducks.
3. Anaheim LW Jakob Silfverberg has recorded 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in his last 25 contests.