Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Anaheim Ducks (11-3-1, 23 points) and New York Rangers (6-7-0, 12 points) faceoff for the second and last time this season live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The game can be live streamed here. Anaheim fans can hear all of the hard-hitting action on KLAA-AM 830 while New York fans can do the same on ESPN 98.7 FM.
Anaheim enters play in second place in the Pacific Division, with the same amount of points as the San Jose Sharks, but has two more losses while New York enters in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, 10 points behind the first place Pittsburgh Penguins. The Ducks defeated the Rangers in the midst of New York's nine-game season-opening trip Oct. 10 in Anaheim.
The Rangers hope to win their fourth game in a row and look for a lift from captain Ryan Callahan (broken thumb) who returns to the lineup for the first time in seven games. Callahan is tied for second on the team with three goals scored for his only three points of the season. The top line of Derek Stepan, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider was strong again in the team's 5-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday where Stepan netted a hat trick, despite the line starting out slow and being benched by head coach Alain Vigneault.
"I liked the way they responded [to the benching]," Vigneault said per NHL.com. "I challenged them and they responded the right way. They went on the ice and had some real solid puck-possession shifts."
The Ducks enter Madison Square Garden for the last contest of their season-long eight-game road trip and the team looks for its 11th point out of 12 possible points in its last six games and enters as one of the elite teams in the NHL. The Ducks won their last game in Buffalo against the Sabres Saturday night by a 6-3 margin after a shaky start.
"Our goal each and every game is to have a good start, and I don't think we did that [Saturday night]," said Emerson Etem, who scored two goals during the win, via NHL.com. "Couple things we need to work on, but I'm proud of how the guys battled back."
The Ducks have been paced by Ryan Getzlaf who has a team-high 16 points and 10 assists while adding six goals. Corey Perry scored two goals in the win over Buffalo and ranks second on the team with 15 points off of a team-leading eight tallies and seven helpers while Mathieu Perreault has lit the lamp five times and added eight assists for 13 points.
The Rangers have been led by Brad Richards, who has a team-high five goals and five assists, and Derek Stepan whose hat trick gave him three tallies for the year to go along with seven helpers as both have 10 points on the season.
The Rangers will likely be given the task of having to beat Jonas Hiller, who is 6-2-1 with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage. The Rangers will counter with Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes, who has improved on his season after sitting out two games due to an unspecified injury, and is 4-5-0 with a 2.63 GAA and a .914 save percentage.
The Ducks look to end their successful road trip on a strong note while the Rangers will hope to win their third straight game when the puck drops in Madison Square Garden tonight in New York City.
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