(SportsNetwork.com) - The Anaheim Ducks will try to become the first team this season to reach the century mark in points when they visit the New York Rangers in Sunday's battle at Madison Square Garden.
The Ducks enter Sunday with 99 points, which ties them with idle Montreal for the most in the NHL and is three ahead of Nashville and St. Louis for the Western Conference lead. Anaheim reached 100 points for the third time in franchise history last season when it finished second in the league with 116.
Anaheim has won its last four games and is closing in on its third straight Pacific Division title. Entering Sunday, the Ducks hold a 13-point lead over the Vancouver Canucks for first place.
The Rangers, meanwhile, are leading the Metropolitan Division with 97 points, five more than the New York Islanders and seven ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Blueshirts hold three games in hand over the Isles and two over Pittsburgh. Both teams chasing the Rangers in the division are idle on Sunday.
The Ducks begin a five-game road trip tonight and are coming off consecutive 3-2 overtime wins. Anaheim downed the rival Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday before taking out the Colorado Avalanche by the same score on Friday to close a three-game homestand.
Ryan Kesler scored the OT winner against the Kings, while Corey Perry delivered the deciding goal on Friday.
After Sami Vatanen stripped a player of the puck, Perry took the loose puck and finished off a breakaway with a wrister over Semyon Varlamov's glove for the win at 1:25 of the extra session. Vatanen was back in the lineup Friday after missing the previous 15 games with a lower-body injury.
"Sami made a great play at the blueline, making a play on that puck and just poking it ahead," said Perry. "I was fortunate to have that breakaway and I had an idea of what I wanted to do."
It was the 29th goal of the season for Perry, who has reached the 30-goal mark four times in his career. Perry tied an Anaheim record with his sixth career overtime goal.
Jiri Sekac and Rickard Rakell each tallied a goal and an assist and Frederik Andersen made 22 saves for the victory.
Anaheim is 21-10-4 as the road club this season.
The Rangers have won six of their last seven games and notched a 3-2 shootout victory at Carolina on Saturday. The win came after New York had its five-game win streak snapped in a 1-0 home loss to Chicago on Wednesday.
Cam Talbot made 28 saves in regulation and overtime, then stopped two attempts in the shootout to lead the Rangers to the road victory over the Hurricanes.
Mats Zuccarello beat Anton Khudobin with a forehand deke for the only goal in the shootout after J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast scored in regulation for New York.
The Rangers led 2-1 after 40 minutes, but allowed Carolina to send the game to overtime thanks to Ryan Murphy's power-play tally with 5:33 remaining in the third period.
"For two periods I don't think we gave them more than a couple of scoring chances," said Rangers coach Alain Vigneault. "In the third, they had a really strong push and they were tough to handle. Cam had some big saves to make and we were able to get it done in the shootout."
Talbot could get the call again for the Rangers on Sunday.
New York's No. 1 netminder Henrik Lundqvist is nearing a return after suffering a sprained blood vessel in his neck in early February. However, that return could come a little later than expected after Lundqvist missed practice Friday to be with his wife for the birth of the couple's second child.
Vigneault said Lundqvist would join the Rangers for the morning skate before Tuesday's home game against Los Angeles.
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