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ANAHEIM Sean Lee Jersey Womens , Calif. — As the playoffs close in, teams like the Dallas Stars play out the string. Others, like the Anaheim Ducks, tune up for the postseason. These two squads meet in Anaheim on Friday night with the Ducks still vying for second in the Pacific Division.

Anaheim (42-25-13) defeated the Minnesota Wild at home on Wednesday night. The win clinched the Ducks’ sixth consecutive playoff appearance. Ryan Miller made 26 saves in the win. Ondrej Kase scored the winning goal to up his season total to 20. The Ducks are on a three-game win streak and are 8-1-1 in their last 10 contests. The Wild were playing with a depleted defensive corps due to injuries suffered by Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon.

Dallas (41-31-8) defeated the Sharks 4-2 in San Jose Tuesday night, coming back from a 2-0 deficit. They have gone 3-5-2 in their last 10 games but have won their last two contests. Mike McKenna got the victory on the strength of 17 saves after he replaced starter Kari Lehtonen in the Dallas goal. Lehtonen stopped 12 shots and allowed both San Jose goals. He exited after being stunned by a hard shot late in period one.

The Stars were knocked from playoff contention on Sunday. They looked disinterested in the first part of the San Jose game but tied things as the last five minutes approached. Jamie Benn scored both the go-ahead goal and the empty-net insurance marker in the last 3:06.

Benn said, “It was a tough first period and even the second, but we found a way to regroup and came out with a great effort in the third.”

McKenna is the prototype of the NHL journeyman. His last appearance was with Colorado in 2015. He last won a game in December of 2013. Upon taking the net, he immediately turned away a four-shot onslaught by the Sharks. Dallas locked the game down late, allowing only one shot on goal in the third period. This was McKenna’s sixth NHL victory.

Lehtonen is on injured reserve with day-to-day status. The Stars lost primary goaltender Ben Bishop to an injury in mid-March. He started 51 games and played in 53 this season. Coach Hitchcock said Lehtonen will likely be available for Friday, but the team announced Thursday that McKenna will play against the Ducks.

“Sometimes guys just earn it in this league — and I think, quite frankly, he’s earned it Mike McGlinchey Jersey Limited ,” Hitchcock said as reported on the team’s website.

Anaheim is missing two crucial members. Cam Fowler suffered an upper-body injury versus Colorado on Sunday and is expected to miss two to six weeks. John Gibson was knocked over in his net in the first period versus Colorado. Both are on the injured reserve list.

Defenseman Francois Beauchemin said, “Now that we’ve clinched, it gives Gibby more freedom to really heal 100 percent before coming back.”

The Ducks can claim second place from San Jose depending on what the Sharks do in their last two games. For the past five years, the Ducks have won the Pacific. This year, injuries made that impossible.

Ryan Getzlaf said, “This whole year has been a bit of a struggle. With the start we had, and the players we had out of the lineup, it was tough to see the big picture at that point. Our guys did a good job battling throughout the whole year. We accomplished one goal we wanted.”

Coach Randy Carlyle commented, “We felt if we played the right way and gave ourselves a chance, this group was capable of putting together a longer string of wins and (qualifying) for the playoffs. Now the goal changes. Yes, we have accomplished the goal we set out, but now we’re in a position with four points available to solidify or even improve our position if we continue to have success. We want to play the right way going into the playoffs.”

The Stars finish their season on the road Saturday Dan Bailey Jersey Elite , playing Los Angeles. The Ducks finish their regular-season campaign with a game in Arizona that same night.

TAMPA, Fla. — A potential Stanley Cup Final preview will be on display Sunday as the league-leading Nashville Predators visit the Tampa Bay Lightning.

A late-season surge by the Predators has them in front in the chase for the Presidents’ Trophy. Tampa Bay occupied that spot for most of the season before a mini-slump late in the season and is three points back.

Nashville, coming off a 7-4 loss at home to the NHL-worst Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, continues to pace the league with 111 points, running off a 16-3-2 record since Feb. 19 to bypass the Lightning in the standings.

The Boston Bruins, who play at Philadelphia on Sunday, is two points behind the Predators and one ahead of Tampa Bay with a game in hand on both teams.

“That’s a huge game (Sunday) obviously,” Nashville center Austin Watson told The Tennessean. “Everybody knows that. It’s a great opportunity for us to bounce back. I don’t know how much we’ll look at this, or we’ll just look to Tampa. That’s up to the coaching staff. We’ll do what we’ve got to do to get our minds right.”

The Predators want to quickly put the loss to Buffalo behind them and avoid back-to-back regulation losses for the second time second time in the past 21 games.

“We have to get our stuff together, last four games we need to play hard, play much better than we showed,” Nashville center Mike Fisher told Predators’ television network following the loss to Buffalo. “Good thing is we have a big game (Sunday) Denzel Ward Jersey , and we have to get back at it and play our hockey. We still have a lot to play for, we have to show it.”

The Lightning, meanwhile, have not only dropped out of the top overall spot in the league standings, they now trail Boston for the top overall spot in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division standings with a 4-5-0 record in the past nine games.

While getting back on the right side of the ledger is something for Tampa Bay to focus on in the final four games, there are other areas the team is looking at as well.

“I think we are focusing on some little things here and there,” Lightning center Tyler Johnson said. “Obviously we are in a funk and in a little groove right now we are trying to get out of, but we will. I think once playoffs start it’s a completely different thing and it automatically elevates wherever you are, and I have a lot of faith in our team and our group, so I’m not too worried about there.”

Chasing down Boston is on the Lightning’s agenda heading down the final week of the season and is in the middle of a stretch of four emotionally charged games, including the matchup with Nashville. Tampa Bay hosts Boston on Tuesday.

“We have gone in to a little bit of a lull since we clinched,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “I think these upcoming games Jamal Adams Jersey , they bring the emotions out, especially with the distance in the standings between us and Boston and what it has been. You don’t know how these games are going to turn out but I would expect our guys to be fully invested for sure.”

It will also be an expected matchup between Vezina Trophy favorites with Nashville’s Pekka Rinne likely facing Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Rinne has jumped to the forefront as the favorite thanks to a 22-3-1 run in which he has posted a 2.02 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in his past 26 starts. He enters Sunday with an overall record of 41-11-4, a 2.25 GAA, .929 save percentage and league-leading eight shutouts, but was victimized for six goals by Buffalo.

Vasilevskiy was the runaway leader at the All-Star break and though he leads the league with 42 victories, which is a single-season franchise record, he has seen his GAA blow up to 2.60 after giving up three or more goals 15 times in 21 starts since the All-Star break.

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