Ducks welcome back Perry, Cogliano as Stars visit

The Anaheim Ducks will have a "Country Night" on Thursday when they play host to the Dallas Stars, complete with a "bobbleBULLhead" giveaway of defenseman Josh Manson wearing a cowboy hat and riding on the back of a longhorn. One for every fan.

With apologies to Manson, the giveaway will not be the side draw of choice.

The real audience-pleaser the Ducks were able to wrangle up for Wednesday's game is Corey Perry. The Dallas right wing might still be on a five-game suspension for his hit on the Nashville Predators' Ryan Ellis during the New Year's Day Winter Classic, but the former Ducks veteran of 14 seasons still is expected to be on hand.

Perry will be honored with a video tribute during a stop in play in the first period. Former Ducks center Andrew Cogliano, who now plays for the Stars, also will be celebrated on the video board.

Ducks fans could use a reason to cheer. Anaheim will enter Thursday's game off a 4-3 defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets two days earlier when their own decision to replay a Blue Jackets goal for a possible offside only inflicted further damage.

Nathan Gerbe appeared to cross the blue line too soon ahead of his game-tying goal with 1:23 remaining in the second period. Replay validated Gerbe's positioning, while also confirming the goal, and the Ducks were handed a two-minute minor for the unsuccessful review.

A mere 1:12 later, Zach Werenski scored a power-play goal for a 3-2 lead and Columbus never trailed again. It has been that kind of a season for the Ducks.

"There was enough evidence for it to hold up as a goal," Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler said. "There's nothing we can do after that. You have to focus on killing the penalty, and unfortunately, they got one there in a span of a minute in real hockey time. We were scrambling after that."

The Ducks did have a four-game points streak at home heading into the game, but otherwise it has been a rough first half. Anaheim has lost four of its last five games (1-3-1) and is 6-11-1 going back to the week of Thanksgiving.

The Stars will enter off a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night. Dallas trailed 1-0 before Jaime Benn and Blake Comeau scored 37 seconds apart in the second period. Esa Lindell had two assists.

Perry served the second game of his suspension and will miss the remainder of the current road trip.

The Stars are on a five-game winning streak and have rebounded from a four-game losing streak that bled into early December. Dallas is now 10-3-1 going back to Dec. 5.

After facing the Ducks, the Stars will continue on their California trip at San Jose on Saturday. The trip concludes Tuesday at Colorado.

"These are three (California) teams that, regardless of their standing, regardless of their record, they are very good teams," Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness said. "They know they have about a 10-15 game window to get back in the playoff hunt and it's now. The desperation that comes with that, we will see for the next (few) games."

--Field Level Media