Friday, March 7, 7:00 PM on ROOT, PT

Honda Center, Anaheim, California

Two division leaders square off in Anaheim Friday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins come out West to take on the home town Ducks. Both teams entered the Olympic break in somewhat of a funk but will look to build on their 40 win seasons thus far in what could be the NHL Game of the Week.

The two teams from opposite conferences haven't met in over 3 months, a November 18th meeting in Pittsburgh. The Ducks and Penguins felt each other out for 2 periods in that epic battle before an eruption of goals in the 3rd. Brian Gibbons and Brandon Sutter gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead only 4 minutes into the 3rd before Ryan Getzlaf answered for Anaheim only 26 seconds later. Still, Sidney Crosby put the game on ice with a goal at the 7:56 mark to end the scoring for the night.

Over bettors on that previous meeting had given up hope with 0 goals in 40 minutes only to see 4 goals in 4 minutes with over 12:00 left to play. Yet they had their cash dreams dashed as the +/- 5.5 was just too far out of reach. Pittsburgh bettors cashed in at -150 in a game that was never really in danger of getting away.

Anaheim is in the midst of a 5 game home stand and will look to even the season series on the strength of their 24-5-1-1 SU record at the Honda Center. Even on the surge of a strong record, the Ducks have only gone 32-30 against the 1.5 goal spread overall, which is still better than the 27-33 ATS record of the Penguins.

With a little over a month to go in the 2013/14 season this game could be a huge factor for home ice advantage for two teams with their eyes on the Stanley Cup Finals.