Ducks, playing some of their best hockey, start 6-game trip – San Bernardino Sun

The Ducks found themselves on the cusp of a .500 points percentage and six points back of the final wild-card berth in the West as they set out on a six-game road trip, the longest of their campaign, which will begin Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.

They have flung a few stones from their slings of late and hit some of the NHL’s goliaths squarely, including wins in both meetings with the Jets thus far, at Honda Center on Dec. 18 and north of the border on Jan. 2.

“We’ve been beating some really good hockey teams, and it’s great for our group, just knowing that we can hang with those guys, being such a young team,” Ducks center Mason McTavish said. “It’s nice to be playing meaningful games in early January and it’s something we’re all going to take really seriously.”

McTavish scored a power-play goal in a 3-2 overtime loss to Calgary on Tuesday, the Ducks’ second man-advantage marker in three games. Prior to that affair, the Ducks had gone 4-of-46 on the power play

Forward Alex Killorn, who scored a goal at even strength Tuesday, pointed last month to the absence of Trevor Zegras as a source of listlessness on the power play. Zegras last played Dec. 4, just six minutes of the match versus Vegas in which he tore his meniscus. The Ducks had been scoring at a 15.7% clip with Zegras and now had produced a meager 8.7%, the second-worst rate in the NHL between Dec. 2 and Tuesday.

Nevertheless, the Ducks have recently defeated not only Winnipeg twice, but the always-formidable Tampa Bay Lightning, ascendant New Jersey Devils and conference champion Edmonton Oilers, whom they’ll also face again on this trip. A 3-2 loss in Edmonton is their only regulation defeat in their past six games. Coach Greg Cronin said that after losing a squeaker in Edmonton, there was no talk of moral victories and only the expectation that they’d win next time.

“I love the fact that every game we play, we’re in it,” Killorn said. “There haven’t been many games where we’re in the third period, we’re looking up and looking at a score that we can’t come back from. A lot of times we’re right in the mix.”

Much of the Ducks’ five-on-five attack had been driven by Troy Terry, who missed Tuesday’s game while awaiting the birth of his and wife Dani’s second child. His linemates, Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano, had combined for 13 points in their previous five games with Terry, but were held off the score sheet altogether without him.

“You could see that line was sputtering along. When he’s with that group, there’s a chemistry there, and you could see that we didn’t have it,” Cronin said. “He’s coming off a player of the week [honor] and he’s piling up points. It’s a huge miss.”

It was unknown Wednesday morning exactly when Terry would rejoin his teammates, but regardless they’ll confront the Jets for the third and final meeting of this season Thursday. The Jets were the NHL’s top team by points in both prior matchups, but entered Wednesday’s action a point behind Vegas, with both Vegas and Washington having surpassed Winnipeg in points percentage.