Preview: Ducks Open New Year Tonight in Winnipeg

The Ducks will kick off the New Year north of the border, tonight facing off with the first-place Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre.

PUCK DROP: 5 P.M. PT | WATCH: VICTORY+ / FOX PLUS (KCOP-13) | AUDIO: DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER

Anaheim hits the road looking to bring along some momentum gained from consecutive thrilling home wins over Edmonton and New Jersey. Both games would see a tied score deep into the third period, before Ryan Strome twice provided the eventual game-winning goal with less than five minutes to play.

"I really like the way we came out in the second period," head coach Greg Cronin said of Tuesday's win over the Devils. "We kind of got back to our game which we have been playing for about six weeks now. Then, when they did make it 2-2, the bench was terrific. We got back to playing our game, playing on our toes.

"We responded well and we are starting to get mature as a group. There is a group of old guys [and] a group of young kids [here]. The older guys are able to communicate the maturity they feel after playing 500-600 games and I think that is being transferred to the young kids."

Lukas Dostal earned the win between the pipes for Anaheim, his 10th of the season and fourth in his last five starts. Among NHL netminders with at least 20 appearances this season, Dostal's .914 save percentage ranks sixth.

"I’ve said this repeatedly, he’s mature for his age, particularly in a goalie’s life when you’re that young, to have his maturity level," Cronin said. "He doesn’t get rattled, he’s got a very high standard that he sets for himself, even when he plays pucks, he took a couple whistles that prevented us from changing. I saw his face, you could tell he was disappointed in himself but you can see by his body language when little details like that slip, he immediately takes ownership of it. You always say it’s not the number of saves it’s the timeliness of the saves and I thought that he had some timely saves [Tuesday]."

The resilient win also featured another strong performance from the newly united Cutter Gauthier, Robby Fabbri and Mason McTavish line, which has now found the scoresheet in four of the last five games.

"Like Cutter said the other night, we are communicating well on the ice and on the bench," Fabbri said. "We are just complementing each other right now. Cutter is skating great, creating plays. Mac-T is playing like a horse out there. It's just going well right now. Trying to ride the high."

Anaheim now sits at 15-17-4 on the season, with a 2-1-0 mark since the holiday break.

“I think we are just all on the same page," Fabbri said. "It is pretty special when either goalie in the net can give us a chance to win every night. They’ve been great behind us. That allows us to get to our game and play our game...I think we are just getting connected as a group here."

The Ducks now look to continue the fun against one of the NHL's top teams, a Jets squad seeking some revenge from Anaheim's nail-biting 3-2 win in the season's first meeting.

"We got the lead, [but] we didn’t play very well for two periods," Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said that night. "We found a way to get the lead and we’re usually pretty good when we get up, especially in the third period. Made some mistakes, obviously critical mistakes...and Anaheim gets the win."

Winnipeg would go on to win four straight games after its December trip to Orange County, but saw that streak end Tuesday in a 5-2 loss to the division rival Colorado Avalanche.

“I liked the way that we battled back," Arniel told NHL.com's Ryan Boulding. "Every time we got down one, we battled back. Any time you can go into the third period tied 2-2...you hope that you can come out on the right side of it, and we didn’t.”

Winnipeg (27-11-1, 55 points) leads the Central Division.