After opening an eight-game homestand with five straight wins, the Anaheim Ducks have improved to 9-1-3 in their last 13 games. More importantly, the Ducks appear to have recaptured a little of the mojo that saw them get off to the best start in franchise history when they won 27 of 38 games before Christmas.

In picking up 10 quick points at the Honda Center, the Ducks, who have now won seven of eight, have opened a 10-point lead in the Pacific Division over San Jose and Dallas, tied for second place. While the Ducks have used home ice to their advantage, San Jose has struggled at the HP Pavilion recently, going 2-4-3 in its last nine home games.

The Ducks have rejuvenated their season by taking on all comers. Their current run began with impressive wins over San Jose and Nashville, their top division and conference rivals, respectively. The Ducks were then able to avoid playing down to the competition, converting easy wins over lowly Phoenix and Edmonton.

While the Ducks were hockey’s best team before Christmas, their opponent Sunday has been the NHL’s hottest team after the holidays.

Vancouver brought an NHL-best 24-4-4 record since Christmas, along with a five-game winning streak, to Orange County to face the Ducks Sunday. In front of the 11th-consecutive sellout crowd at Honda Center, the Ducks cooled off the Canucks, churning out a 4-2 playoff-like win. With 104 penalty minutes handed out, the game had an intensity befitting a late-season game between two conference rivals preparing for the playoffs.

“It was almost like a playoff game,” Ducks winger Teemu Selenne said. “The intensity level was there.”

The Ducks' challenge is to retain that kind of emotion against the lower division teams that will visit the Honda Center this week to close out the homestand. With Columbus (61 points), Chicago (61 points), and Los Angeles (57 points) traveling to Anaheim this week, the Ducks are looking at the very real possibility of a perfect 8-0 homestand, provided they can avoid a letdown.

After that, Anaheim has nine regular season games remaining, seven of which will be played on the road.

In Sunday’s game, Selanne scored his 40th goal of the year, thus becoming the first player on the wrong side of 35 to put up back-to-back 40-goal seasons.

“It makes me feel very, very old,” Selanne, still boyish at 36, said.

It wasn’t so long ago that the Ducks looked as old as Selanne feels, as injuries threatened to turn a potential team for the ages into one that had peaked too early. In January and February, the free-falling Ducks won just nine of 23 games. Lately, however, the Ducks have looked more and more like a team that had the good fortune of having its bad luck at mid-season, while there was still time to recover.

Defenseman Chris Pronger is currently sidelined with a broken toe, but Scott Niedermayer and Francois Beauchemin are back, as is goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The Ducks appear to be back, too.

Giguere has posted a 2-0-0 record, 1.50 goals-against average and .941 save percentage in his last two games. The 2003 Conn Smythe winner is now 33-8-7 this season, just one win shy of the career-high he established in 2002-03.

With 95 points, the Ducks are just three behind Nashville, the League’s overall points leader, in the race for the Western Conference regular season title.

Who's hot -- Dallas goaltender Marty Turco is 2-0-0 with a 1.49 GAA and .941 save percentage in his last two games. Teammate Mike Modano has three points in three games. ... Phoenix
DOAN
captain Shane Doan has eight points in his last six games; teammate Steve Reinprecht has two points in two games. ... San Jose defenseman Matt Carle has eight points in eight games. Shark center Joe Thornton has four points in three games, while winger Ryane Clowe has four points in four games. Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov is 3-0-1 with a 0.49 GAA, .982 save-percentage and three shutouts in his last four outings. San Jose defenseman Craig Rivet is a plus-4 since being obtained from Montreal Feb. 25. ... In Anaheim, center Andy McDonald has four points in two games; winger Chris Kunitz has three points in two games; center Ryan Getzlaf has four points in two games; winger Dustin Penner has seven points in seven games; defenseman Scott Niedermayer has two points in two games.

Not hot -- San Jose winger Bill Guerin is scoreless in six games since joining the Sharks, while defenseman Jaroslav Modry is scoreless in six games in his second tour of duty with the Kings. ... Jeff Halpern of Dallas has not found the score sheet in 12 games. ... Phoenix goaltender Curtis Joseph is 0-2-0 with a .859 save percentage in his last three games.

KOPITAR
News to note -- Center Gabe Gauthier, an Orange County native who played his college hockey at the University of Denver, made his NHL debut for the Kings Sunday. Gauthier combined with Noah Clarke, a native of the Los Angeles suburb of La Verne, to give the Kings two Southern Californians for the first time ever. Clarke played college hockey at Colorado College, Denver’s chief rival. ... Kings’ rookie Anze Kopitar, who has missed six games with an upper body injury, remains sidelined indefinitely.

The week ahead -- The Ducks will close out their eight-game homestand, which they have started 5-0, by hosting Columbus (Wednesday), Chicago (Friday), and Los Angeles (Sunday).

The Kings, mired in the Western Conference’s cellar, will try to make up ground on 13th place Chicago at Staples Center Thursday.

Doug Ward
NHL.COM

They've been playing great of late (aside from the Columbus debacle last night). There's no way that they're going to lose the Pacific now.