ANAHEIM, Calif. – Corey Perry scored his league-leading eighth game-winning goal of the season with 0.6 seconds on the clock in overtime, giving the Anaheim Ducks a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
The Ducks, off to a franchise-best 31-8-5 start and 17-0-2 at Honda Center, are the only team in the league without a regulation loss at home. Anaheim is also the third NHL team to open a season with a home point streak of 19 or more games, joining San Jose (2008-09) and Philadelphia (1979-80).
The Ducks have also won 13 of 14 games overall since losing back-to-back shootout decisions against the Sharks and Kings.
Nick Bonino got the tying goal with 1:27 left in the third period. Saku Koivu and Matt Beleskey scored in the second and Jonas Hiller stopped 17 shots to extend his club-record and career-best winning streak to 11 games.
Ryan Kesler and Henrik Sedin scored power play goals 2 minutes apart in the first, and defenseman Kevin Bieksa scored in the third for the Canucks.
Rookie Eddie Lack made a career-high 45 saves one night after Roberto Luongo had 45 in a loss to Los Angeles in his return following a three-game absence with a groin injury.
Luongo was scratched for this one, and Lack's backup was 43-year-old Rob Laurie — who has never appeared in an NHL game and hasn't played professionally since 2002. But he lives in Southern California and was summoned on an emergency basis.
The Ducks went on the power play with 1:06 left in OT after Bonino stole the puck from Daniel Sedin at the Vancouver blue line and was immediately hooked by Bieksa. Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf passed the puck ahead to Perry from the blue line and the 2011 MVP beat Lack between the pads for his team-high 23rd goal.
Perry has 44 points through 44 games. During his 50-goal MVP season of 2010-11, he had 21 goals through his first 44 games. Perry had 15 goals and 36 points in the 44 games he played during last season's lockout-shortened 48-game schedule.
Anaheim outshot Vancouver 40-7 over the second and third periods. Kyle Palmieri blocked Jason Garrison's one-timer from just inside the Anaheim blue line and carried the puck into the Vancouver zone, where he made a backhanded pass from the left circle into the slot and Beleskey backhanded it past Lack at 16:38 of the second to make it 2-all.
The Canucks regained the lead when Bieksa's wrist shot from just inside the blue line got past a screened Hiller just 66 seconds into the third period. But the Ducks pulled even again as Daniel Winnik stole Garrison's attempted clearing pass and fed Bonino for a 25-foot wrist shot that beat Lack over his right shoulder.
The Canucks, who began the day with the best penalty-killing percentage in the league at 89.4, thwarted Anaheim's first two power plays before Perry('s winner in overtime. The Ducks are 2 for 34 over their last 11 games, including a season-worst 0 for 8 showing in Friday's 5-2 win over Edmonton.
NOTES: Vancouver RW Zack Kassian left the game for good at 4:11 of the second period after teammate Tom Sestito caught him in the face with his skate while they were trying to get the puck away from Anaheim D Hampus Lindholm deep in the Ducks' zone. ... During Hiller's winning streak, he has allowed 23 goals on 268 shots and gave up more than two only twice. ... The Ducks haven't allowed more than three goals in any of their last 17 games since losing 6-3 on Nov. 26 at Dallas. ... Ducks C Mathieu Perreault was a healthy scratch on his 26th birthday. ... Vancouver also lost both ends of a Southern California back-to-back set Nov. 9-10, and has one more of these situations coming up April 5-7. ... The Canucks, coming off back-to-back losses, haven't dropped three straight in regulation during the regular season since Nov. 17-21, 2010.
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