The Anaheim Ducks will try to inch closer to their first Stanley Cup playoff berth in eight years when they visit the Vancouver Canucks to open a three-game Canadian swing on Tuesday night.
The Ducks (39-27-4, 82 points) have earned points in their past four games (3-0-1), allowing them to open a four-point lead atop the Pacific Division entering the week with 12 games left.
Anaheim hasn’t accumulated at least 82 points in a season since it last made the playoffs in 2017-18.
“We’ve been dying to play in these games,” Ducks forward Troy Terry said after scoring the overtime goal in a 6-5 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
The Ducks have been earning points in dramatic fashion a lot lately.
They scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:30 remaining in a 4-3 win against the Montreal Canadiens on March 15, scored the tying goal with 1:54 left against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday before losing 3-2 in overtime, and scored the tying goal with 1:44 to go on Sunday against the Sabres before Terry won it in overtime.
During the same 3-0-1 stretch for Anaheim, the Vegas Golden Knights went 1-3-0, the Edmonton Oilers 2-2-0, the Los Angeles Kings 1-2-1, the Seattle Kraken 1-3-0 and the San Jose Sharks 0-4-0.
“We want to make sure that we’re moving ahead,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I think we helped ourselves by the last two games coming up with points that look like we’re in tough spots, and then some of the things that were going on along in our division.”
The Ducks will try to take advantage of a Vancouver team that hasn’t won more than two in a row since just before the Christmas break, but has also beaten Anaheim in both previous meetings this season.
“It’s March, and every point, every game matters, especially with the tight race,” Terry said. “We’re trying to stay in the moment and relish being in those moments and, hopefully, keep learning along the way.”
The Canucks (21-40-8, 50 points) most recently lost 3-1 to the visiting St. Louis Blues on Saturday, another team that will miss the playoffs this season.
Vancouver didn’t show much life until scoring a power-play goal 8:32 into the third period.
Marco Rossi assisted on Filip Hronek’s goal to extend his point streak to five games (three goals, seven assists).
“We were really disconnected first and second period. In the third period, we were skating, winning battles, everything opens then,” Rossi said. “We have to stay positive, learn from that, and it’s got to be a full 60 (minutes) and not, you know, 20 minutes or 30.”
Heading into the second-to-last game of an eight-game homestand, Vancouver hasn’t capitalized on home ice this season, posting just an 8-23-5 mark at Rogers Arena, already a team record for regulation losses at home.
“I think we play too cute,” Rossi said. “We play too much on the outside and we’re not going enough to the inside, the dirty areas. I think that’s missing in our game.”
The Canucks have been limited to two goals or fewer in five of the past seven games and enter the week second-to-last in the NHL at 2.52 goals per game.
“We have to put more pucks on net and try to create chaos,” Hronek said.
