ANAHEIM, Calif. – 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 Anaheim Ducks extended their winning streak to five with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
Corey 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.
The Ducks are the league's only undefeated team on home ice, and the first to win their first eight home games since the 2010-11 Los Angeles Kings. Anaheim's 31 points through its first 19 games eclipsed the previous club mark of 30 set in 2006-07, when the team won its only Stanley Cup title.
Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf, who had his first career hat trick Friday night in a 6-2 victory over Buffalo, was scratched for the first time this season because of an upper-body injury. Mathieu Perreault took his place on the team's top line between Perry and Dustin Penner.
Andersen became the first Ducks goalie to win his first six NHL games. Viktor Fasth, who hasn't played since Oct. 16 due to a lower-body injury, was 8-0 in his first nine appearances last season.
According to a Ducks spokesman, Hiller was under the weather — but available to play. He sat by the locker room watching the game at the end of the runway leading to the bench area.
Tom Sestito scored his first goal of the season for the Canucks, back at Honda Center for the first time since beating Anaheim 5-0 last January in the Ducks' lockout-delayed home opener.
Eddie Lack made 20 saves in his fourth NHL start, all of them on the road — including overtime victories against Calgary and St. Louis. The 25-year-old rookie played the final 28 minutes of the Canucks' 5-1 loss at Los Angeles on Saturday night, stopping 13 of 14 shots after Roberto Luongo was pulled from a game for the first time since April 3, 2012, against the Ducks.
The Ducks led 2-1 after two periods despite getting outshot 29-16. Bonino slammed his fifth goal into a wide-open net after Emerson Etem got the puck from Perry in the left circle and drew Lack out of the crease.
Perry opened the scoring 8½ minutes into the middle period with his 11th goal. Francois Beauchemin's slap shot from the right point deflected off defenseman Jason Garrison's leg, then off Lack's right shoulder, before fluttering in the air and landing in the crease behind the Canucks' goalie. All Perry had to do was tap it in.
Sestito tied it at 14:09 with his sixth goal in 77 NHL games. Zack Kassian dumped the puck deep into the Anaheim zone and Brad Richardson beat Bryan Allen to it before setting up Sestito at the edge of the crease.
The Ducks were 0 for 2 on the power play. The Canucks, who came in with a league-best penalty-killing percentage of 89.1, have killed off all 22 short-handed situations over their last seven games.
NOTES: Ducks assistant coach Scott Niedermayer was in Toronto on the eve of his induction into the Hall of Fame. The five-time All-Star was Anaheim's captain during its Stanley Cup championship season, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. He wasn't behind the bench the last time the Ducks hosted Vancouver, either. He was in Kamloops, B.C., for the retirement of his No. 28 jersey by the WHL's Blazers. ... The Canucks have played three consecutive games without a goal or an assist from either of the Sedin twins for the first time since last January, the second week of the lockout-delayed season. ... Luongo, whose 357 wins rank second among active goalies behind career leader Martin Brodeur, is 8-11-2 with a 3.17 goals-against average against Anaheim. ... The Canucks begin a six-game homestand Thursday night against San Jose. The Ducks start a four-game road trip Tuesday at Florida.
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