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Minus Perry, Ducks begin home-and-home with Oilers

Dec 10, 2014 - 3:32 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Armed with the knowledge they won't have the services of Corey Perry until the new year, the Anaheim Ducks try to secure a fifth straight win on Wednesday night in the opener of a home-and-home series with the Edmonton Oilers.

Perry suffered a sprained knee in last Friday's win over the Minnesota Wild as he was hit into the boards by defenseman Keith Ballard in the first period. Perry had to be helped off the ice and missed Sunday's overtime victory against the Winnipeg Jets.

The Ducks then learned Perry would miss 3-to-4 weeks with the injury, his latest setback on the season. The forward missed five games in November with the mumps, but still leads Anaheim with 14 goals in 23 games along with 22 points.

"Each day since (Saturday) has gotten better," Perry said on Anaheim's website. "If it continues to increase at this speed, hopefully it's over quicker than what we're expecting. We're thankful there aren't any tears."

Minus Perry, the Ducks secured an overtime decision against the Jets thanks to Kyle Palmieri's tally with 53 seconds to go in the bonus frame. Rene Bourque, Jakob Silfverberg and Ryan Kesler also scored and Ryan Getzlaf managed three assists.

Frederik Andersen stopped 27-of-30 shots in his 13th straight start as Anaheim won for the seventh time in nine games while improving to 14-0-5 in one-goal games this season.

"Our group has kind of showed that all year that we have been able to play through things and keep playing. Good or bad, the one thing we have done is play a lot of overtime games this year," noted Getzlaf. "We know the situation we are in and you never want to let a team get back in the last three minutes like that. We have got to learn to close those out a little better."

Andersen figures to continue his games played streak tonight and beat the Oilers the only time he faced them after making 30 saves on 32 shots faced. Currently backed up by 23-year-old Igor Bobkov, Andersen could be in line for some rest down the stretch after Anaheim signed Ilya Bryzgalov for the rest of the season on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old Bryzgalov began his NHL career in 2001-02 with the Ducks and was a member of the 2007 Stanley Cup championship team. He figures to serve as Andersen's backup in the near future, but was assigned to the American Hockey League on a conditioning stint after signing.

The Ducks will visit the Oilers on Friday to complete the home-and-home set and have won seven of nine and 17 of the last 21 meetings overall. They have taken four straight and eight of 10 at home as well.

Edmonton was aiming for a second straight win last night, but lost a 5-2 decision at San Jose to earn a split of a home-and-home set with the Sharks.

The Oilers snapped an 11-game losing streak (0-7-4) and 0-7-1 skid at home with a 2-1 win over the Sharks on Sunday, but lost their sixth in a row on the road on Tuesday.

Jordan Eberle and David Perron scored for the Oilers, while Ben Scrivens allowed all five goals on 24 shots in the loss.

"We can't continue to out-chance teams and not win ... We have to start finishing and putting our chances in the net," Oilers coach Dallas Eakins said.

Perron has three goals and two assists over a five-game point streak.

The Oilers are expected to start former Ducks goaltender Viktor Fasth tonight. He has split two career meetings with Anaheim, posting a 2.52 goals against average and .919 save percentage.