This team sticks together

Dallas Stars forward Steve Ott was at his agitating best Friday night when he hit the Ducks’ Corey Perry after the whistle had blown following Perry’s wraparound try for a goal.

In what seemed like a nanosecond, Ducks winger Chris Kunitz jumped Ott and started pounding him. And that wasn’t lost on his teammates, who rapped their sticks on the sideboard in front of their bench.

“I went right over to him in the penalty box and thanked him,” Perry said. “He didn’t have to do that. That’s just how we are in this dressing room. Everybody sticks up for one another. If somebody did that to him, one of us would be in there.”

Kunitz paid the price by drawing an instigator penalty along with five minutes for fighting, another two minutes for fighting with his face shield on and a 10-minute misconduct.

“Just trying to go with the spur of the moment and try to protect your player,” Kunitz said. “Obviously Corey’s been scoring for us. We need him on the ice.

“When he’s out there, he gives our team a better chance to win. So you want to protect him and we’ll make sure he keeps having a good season.”

The Ducks are well-known for sticking up for their teammates. They’ve leading the league in fighting majors with 56 after topping everyone last season with 71.

“It brings everybody closer, for sure,” Perry said. “Everybody’s in this together. We’re all like one big family here. We’re all brothers to each other. You’ve got to protect each other and look out for one another.”

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The Ducks will host their seventh annual “First Flight” field trip Tuesday for elementary school students from over 115 schools throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

More than 16,000 students are expected to be in attendance. The Ducks will conduct a practice session and a skills event that will feature such categories as fastest skater, hardest shot and most accurate shot.

eric.stephens@latimes.com