SALT LAKE CITY – The Ducks will face the Utah Hockey Club in their home arena for the first time in league history. These two teams faced off in the Ducks’ home opener at the Honda Center. Leo Carlsson put the finishing touches on this game with the game-winner in overtime after the Ducks erased two one-goal deficits.

Anaheim will look to bounce back from a 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on December 20th. The Utahns have now won four games in a row and nine of their last 13. A large part of this is due to the contributions of Dylan Guenther and Clayton Keller and the outstanding goalkeeping of Karel Vejmelka.

Since the puck was scheduled to drop locally at 3:00 p.m., neither team held a morning skate. With John Gibson starting against the Avalanche, Lukáš Dostál is expected to start today against Utah, while Gibson will start in the second game of the back-to-back tournament (SEGABABA) tomorrow night in Las Vegas. In any case, both Ducks goaltenders will start on this short road trip.

“I think (this matchup) is a good opportunity for us,” Alex Killorn said after the loss to the Avalanche. “We haven’t been to Utah yet. We have our dad’s trip, so it will be exciting to have the whole family in town. We’re looking forward to it. There are still two games until halftime. It’s two games in a row, so if we get two wins that would be great.”

Ducks projected lines

Frank Vatrano – Ryan Strome – Troy Terry
Brock McGinn – Leo Carlsson – Alex Killorn
Cutter Gauthier – Mason McTavish – Robby Fabbri
Ross Johnston – Isac Lundestrom – Jansen Harkins

Jackson LaCombe – Radko Gudas
Olen Zellweger – Jacob Trouba
Pavel Mintyukov – Brian Dumoulin

Lukáš Dostál (planned)

Projected Lines of Utah

Clayton Keller – Barrett Hayton – Nick Schmaltz
Jack McBain – Logan Cooley – Dylan Guenther
Matias Maccelli – Nick Bjugstad – Lawson Crouse
Michael Carcone – Kevin Stenlund – Alex Kerfoot

Mikhail Sergachev – Olli Määttä
Ian Cole – Michael Kesselring
Juuso Valimäki – Dakota Mermis

Jaxson Stauber (confirmed)