The Ducks (38-27-4)\u00a0return home for one game against the Sabres (44-20-6) before\u00a0embarking on a three-game road trip.<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for\u00a05\u00a0p.m. PT and will\u00a0air\u00a0on\u00a0KCOP-13\u00a0andVictory+.<\/p>\n
Anaheim\u00a0comes into this game\u00a0off\u00a0a\u00a0convincing\u00a04-1 win over\u00a0the Mammoth\u00a0on Friday.\u00a0Alex Killorn had a goal and two assists in the potential playoff preview\u00a0while Ryan Poehling, Mikael Granlund, and Cutter Gauthier were responsible for the other scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think both teams showed the importance of the game, and everybody’s fighting for the same airspace as far as standings go and trying to make the playoffs,\u201d\u00a0head\u00a0coach Joel Quenneville said. \u201cBoth teams have been absent (from the Stanley Cup Playoffs) for a while,\u00a0and I think they both want to achieve that goal. And I think no matter who we’re playing, everybody’s going to have some motivation behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win\u00a0got the Ducks to 80 points\u00a0on\u00a0the season, three points ahead of the Oilers for\u00a0first place in the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe points are just huge, right?\u201d Killorn said. \u201cLike, especially in the Pacific, we want to kind of stay where we’re at, and we have teams right behind us. And with\u00a0a win\u00a0or\u00a0loss, things can change\u00a0really quickly.\u00a0So\u00a0we value these points\u00a0highly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres\u00a0remain one of the surprises of the\u00a0season as the team leads the Atlantic Division\u00a0and is tied atop the Eastern Conference\u00a0with 94 points to\u00a0their\u00a0name. They\u00a0finally look to\u00a0end their 14-season postseason drought, good for the longest active drought in the league.<\/p>\n
While the team comes into Honda Center\u00a0on the second night of a back-to-back after beating the Kings 4-1 up the freeway\u00a0last night,\u00a0Buffalo\u00a0has won their last four consecutive games, tied with\u00a0Columbus\u00a0for the\u00a0longest active winning streak.<\/p>\n
Former Duck Sam Carrick scored the game-winner against Los Angeles and has\u00a0five goals in\u00a0eight games with Buffalo after being traded to the Sabres\u00a0from the Rangers\u00a0this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tage Thompson leads the team\u00a0in\u00a0goals (36) and points (72) while Rasmus Dahlin\u00a0paces\u00a0the club with 48 assists.<\/p>\n
Tonight, the Ducks face a challenge at goalie as\u00a0per the team website,\u00a0Alex Lyon will be in the net for Buffalo and\u00a0has won 10-straight road games.\u00a0One more win will move him into a three-way tie for the most consecutive road wins by a\u00a0goaltender in NHL history.<\/p>\n
This is the final meeting between the teams this regular season. Buffalo took the first matchup in a 5-3 win in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ducks (38-27-4)\u00a0return home for one game against the Sabres (44-20-6) before\u00a0embarking on a three-game road trip. Puck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-231525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}