"Curtis McElhinney's impressive 40-save performance in his first start last week against Philadelphia helped Ducks coach Randy Carlyle accomplish two things.

It allowed Carlyle to reward his backup goalie with a follow-up start Saturday against Detroit and it gave workhorse starter Jonas Hiller additional rest after a busy start to his season.

As is his policy, Carlyle never mentions who his starting goaltender will be for any particular game, but if Hiller goes in tonight's game against the Dallas Stars as expected, it will be five full days of rest since his last start against Columbus.

Hiller's numbers — 2-4-1 record, 3.45 goals-against average, .911 save percentage — are very pedestrian, but he has also been peppered with 257 shots that's second only to Atlanta's Chris Mason, who has faced 283 shots but has played in one more game.

"He's had a start where we felt he's played very well for our hockey club," Carlyle said. "We look at the calendar and you always have this preliminary rotation that you might do this or you might do that. The way we were playing, we were leaving Jonas hanging high and dry in a lot of situations.

"To some degree, we did that to Curtis, but Curtis won us a hockey game and played very, very well in Philadelphia. I thought he played well again the other night. He gave us a chance. They don't have to win us the hockey game. They just have to give us a chance.""