Ducks’ goalie John Gibson dealing with minor injury

A minor injury to Ducks goalie John Gibson at practice Friday prompted a Saturday call for minor league goalie Jason LaBarbera.

The Ducks announced before their game against Arizona on Saturday that Gibson sustained an unspecified upper-body injury at practice Friday and did not accompany the team to Arizona later in the day.

LaBarbera was officially recalled before the game and skated in pregame warmups after goalie Frederik Andersen led the team onto the ice, indicating Andersen will start the regular-season finale.

Most of the Ducks didn’t get on the Glendale ice Saturday morning. Those who did shot pucks at goalie coach Dwayne Roloson.

Gibson, a 21-year-old who’s 13-8 this season and was in net for 10 consecutive games from Feb. 10-March 1, did not show visible discomfort on the ice during Friday’s session at the team’s practice facility.

The Pacific Division-champion Ducks, by virtue of the Central Division-champion St. Louis Blues’ 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon, need to defeat the last-place Arizona Coyotes tonight either in regulation or overtime to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

The No. 1 seed would leave the Ducks to play the second wild-card entrant Winnipeg Jets, who were beaten by Anaheim in all three meetings this season.

Should the Ducks (50-24-7) win by shootout or lose tonight’s game, St. Louis gets the top seed and the Ducks would meet the Minnesota Wild in the first round.

Gibson’s injury does not appear serious and he’ll have some quality time to recover.

At this point, it appears the Ducks’ first playoff game probably will be Thursday night at Honda Center. With the meaningful game remaining, the NHL has yet to finalize its first-round schedule.