Ducks rise to the top of Pacific Division with shootout win over Canadiens

For a team that has become perhaps the NHL’s best story this season, even these story lines played out neatly.

Jamie McGinn scored in his Ducks debut to shake the team out of a sluggish start. Corey Perry, left off Canada’s preliminary roster for the World Cup, scored to tie it in the third period.

So it naturally followed that goalie John Gibson sealed a 3-2 shootout win against Montreal at Honda Center. Gibson, named to North America’s under-23 team, stopped Max Pacioretty after Jakob Silfverberg scored the only goal.

“Found a way,” Perry said. “You’ve got to give a lot of credit [to Montreal]. They played hard. They played quick. They played with a lot of emotion. We found a way to battle back.”

The Ducks have officially battled all the way back to match the Kings with 78 points. They play Saturday. What does that mean, psychologically, for a team that was 16 points behind the Kings on Jan. 12?

“It means there’s going to be a big game this weekend,” Gibson said.

The Ducks won their ninth straight, the second-longest streak in franchise history behind their 10-game run in December 2013. They are 16-1-1 in their past 18 games and 23-4-2 since Christmas.

Perry’s power-play goal with 9 minutes 9 seconds remaining in the third marked the Ducks’ ninth straight game with a power-play score and their 18th in the last 16 games. He said he wasn’t thinking about the snub earlier Wednesday.

“It’s obviously on your mind, but at the same time, you’re playing for the Anaheim Ducks,” Perry said. “You can’t let that affect you. There’s still time. There’s still spots left. You’ve got just to go out and work as hard as you can.”

McGinn was acquired from Buffalo at Monday’s trade deadline to fill the Ducks’ need for a winger willing to go to the goal mouth to score, and he did so late in the second period with a chip in of Hampus Lindholm’s shot-pass to tie it 1-1.

It was a unique situation for McGinn to try to help the Ducks keep their streak going.

“You don’t want to be the reason it stops,” McGinn said. “It’s definitely good to get [my first goal] out of the way quick. You don’t want it to take too long. You want to feel a part of the team right away.”

McGinn’s goal came after an ugly second-period stretch as Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban, another perceived Canada snub, struck Ryan Kesler with the heel of his skate when Kesler was down at the end boards.

Subsequent roughing penalties, and a bench minor to Montreal Coach Michel Therrien for arguing a call, gave the Ducks four minutes’ worth of power-play time, but they couldn’t convert.

Alex Galchenyuk scored twice for Montreal.

Defenseman Simon Despres was scratched with illness. Clayton Stoner played his first game since Jan.14.

New starts

McGinn was glad to land in Anaheim considering his future was bleak in Buffalo as an impending free agent on a losing team.

“I figured something was going to happen on deadline day,” McGinn said before the game. “There wasn’t too much chatter about a contract extension in Buffalo, nor even a contract on the table to negotiate with. … This is a great situation for me.”

Fellow Ducks acquisition Brandon Pirri echoed McGinn after being in and out of the lineup in Florida.

“Being a really young team, Dale [Tallon, Florida’s general manager] wanted to bring in some older guys, some veteran guys with playoff experience, and I guess I was the odd man out,” Pirri said. “But for me, I’m just fortunate to be in a good situation here.”

DUCKS NEXT UP

AT ARIZONA

When: Thursday, 6 p.m.

On the air: TV: Prime; Radio: 830

Update: Arizona has lost a season-high six straight to further fall out of playoff relevance. It will play its first game since it traded winger Mikkel Boedker to Colorado for Alex Tanguay and two prospects.