ANAHEIM, California: This season is beginning to resemble 2006-07 for All-Star forward Corey Perry, one of five Anaheim Ducks holdovers who helped them win their only Stanley Cup title seven years ago.
Rookie goalie Frederik Andersen won his sixth straight game to start his NHL career, making 35 saves in place of ailing Jonas Hiller, and the league-leading Ducks extended their winning streak to five with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks yesterday.
“If you look around this room, we’ve got a lot of new faces,” Perry said.
“But there’s a lot of guys in here with a lot of character that want to win and prove that they belong here and go out there every night working as hard as they can. They’re playing every game like it’s their last. And if we keep doing that, we’re going to be successful.”
Perry had a goal and an assist, Nick Bonino got the go-ahead goal in the final minute of the second period and Andrew Cogliano added an empty-netter, helping Anaheim improve the NHL’s best record to 15-3-1 and the best home start in franchise history to 8-0.
“It’s surprising, but it’s a nice surprise,” coach Bruce Boudreau said.
“The way our training camp ended, with us losing the last three games - then losing to Colorado 6-1 in the opener - boy, I wouldn’t have thought that we would have put this kind of string together. But then they started to compete, started playing for each other and started battling for jobs.” AGENCIES
