Ducks look to avenge February loss to Red Wings (Mar 16, 2018)

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- One team desperate to keep winning meets another hoping to win again as the Anaheim Ducks host the Detroit Red Wings Friday at Honda Center. This will be the second meeting of the year between teams that were bitter rivals before Detroit moved to the Eastern Conference in 2013. Detroit took the first head-to-head of the year, 2-1, in mid-February. Jimmy Howard was in net for the Red Wings that game.

The Ducks (35-24-12) defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 Wednesday night at Honda Center. For Vancouver, it was the third straight game without scoring a goal. For the Ducks, this stopped a three-game losing streak. They are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. John Gibson made 32 saves to register his third shutout of the season, all coming in his last 13 games. He has 26 wins on the year.

The Red Wings (26-33-11) are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games. They will be playing back-to-back, as they faced the Kings at Staples Center on Thursday. Detroit lost 4-1. Jared Coreau turned back 18 shots in the loss. Detroit scoring came from Gustav Nyquist, his 18th goal. The Wings have registered but one point, an OT loss in Boston, in seven games played in March.

Depth scoring emerged as key for the Ducks versus Vancouver. The first and third goals came off the stick of defenseman Brendan Montour. He has eight on the season, but he had not scored in 50 games dating back to Nov. 19 versus Florida. This was Montour's first multi-goal game and his second consecutive game posting at least a point. He has four game-winning goals this season, second in the NHL.

The second Anaheim goal was chipped in by Jason Chimera. Chimera played with Chris Kelly and Derek Grant as the Ducks' fourth line. This was Chimera's first tally since coming to the team from the Islanders at the trade deadline. He also added an assist on Montour's first goal.

Chimera said, "You want to score goals and help the team out and not just coexist. You want to score some goals and help them out and it's nice to be on the scoresheet."

Coach Randy Carlyle was pleased with the line. "They are veteran guys that understand their role and the situation they are in here. They put pressure on the puck and weren't a liability defensively. That's the key, that they can play 200 feet away from their net more often than they play closer to the net and that's always a plus for a fourth line."

Detroit has struggled after goaltender Pter Mrazek was traded just ahead of the deadline. Since then, they have played 12 games, winning two and gaining overtime points in two. Jimmy Howard was in net for all but two of those contests. Backup Coreau played when Howard didn't, losing twice and getting pulled once.

Coach Jeff Blashill still credits the young netminder: "I thought Jared did a good job. ... He's settled himself down from a tough start," he said Thursday.

The Red Wings welcomed back Frans Nielson after a three-game absence due to a hit by Boston's David Backes. Nielson played with Andreas Athanasiou and Justin Abdelkader, registering an assist.

He commented, "We're just trying to get a win here. Just kind of struggling like that. It doesn't really matter who's scoring or not. (The line) didn't quite produce the kind of chances we want to, but there was some good chemistry there."

Coach Jeff Blashill said, "When you take Tats (Tomas Tatar) out of the lineup and then you lose Frans, a real good NHL player, through injury, you get thin in a hurry. He'll give us a good, stabilizing force. He's a real good two-way player who is a big part of our penalty kill and was starting to go on the power play when he got hurt. Hopefully he can help both those units."

Nielsen contributed the assist on a power-play goal, but he also drew the penalty that put the Kings on the power play that expired the same second Anze Kopitar scored the eventual game winner. The goal thus registered as even strength.

The Red Wings allowed three unanswered goals in the third period, the last one into an empty net.

Blashill looked forward to Friday: "We focus on every game. So we're going to turn around; we're going to have meetings tomorrow, and we're going to try to win a hockey game. You'd better have a short memory in this league. You've got to find a way to win the next game. Once this goes away, you learn from it and you find a way to win the next one. We're going to fight like crazy tomorrow to find a way to win."