The Associated Press
ANAHEIM, Calif.—The Anaheim Ducks scored all their goals at even strength against the Minnesota Wild, which was critical for the NHL’s lowest-scoring team—especially against a club that doesn’t give up many power-play chances.
Rickard Rakell scored the go-ahead goal with 6:19 left in the third period and rookie John Gibson made 25 saves, leading the Ducks to a 3-1 victory last night.
It was the third time in four games that the Ducks scored at least three even-strength goals—after a 16-game stretch in which they managed no more than two in any of them.
“We knew we weren’t going to get a lot of power plays so we tried not to take many penalties ourselves,” said coach Bruce Boudreau.
“We thought one was possible but we didn’t think we’d get more.
“We got three goals from three different lines, which was good,” he added.
Anaheim had only one crack with the man advantage, when Zach Parise went off for holding at 4:41 of the second period.
The Wild have been short-handed fewer than three times in each of their last eight games.
They began the day second in the league in fewest penalty minutes per game (six) and fewest times short-handed (107).
Chris Stewart also scored for the Ducks, who now are 11-2-0 in their last 13 games against Minnesota.
Jakob Silfverberg added an empty-net goal with 49 seconds left.
Jarret Stoll scored for the Wild, who now have lost five-straight.
Devan Dubnyk stopped 24 shots to shoulder the loss.
“We had chances tonight, but right now that’s just not enough for a win,” noted Wild centre Mikael Granlund.
“It’s not easy, and it’s not fun.
“But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” he stressed. “We need to keep doing things better and find a way to get a win.”
Stoll ended a goal drought for the Wild of 127 minutes, 36 seconds since Thomas Vanek scored with 52 seconds left in a 3-2 loss to Buffalo on Jan. 12.
Minnesota had lost its previous two games 1-0 to Winnipeg and 3-0 at Nashville.
The Wild have never been shut out in three-straight regular-season games during the franchise’s 15-year history.
But the Ducks blanked them in the first three games of the 2003 Western Conference final behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who stopped all 98 shots he faced.
Minnesota was 0-for-3 on the power play last night.
The Wild are just 1-for-32 over their last 16 games, and have had no more than three opportunities with the man advantage in any of their last eight games.
“When we’ve been playing our best this year, it’s because we’ve been controlling the neutral zone defensively,” Boudreau noted.
“If you’re not going to score a lot of goals, there are so many teams with such good speed in this league now that you have to slow them down between the bluelines,” he stressed.
The Ducks, who came in with a NHL-best 88.9 penalty-killing percentage, have allowed just two goals in 37 short-handed situations over their last 11 games.
The stretch included franchise-record streaks of eight games and 34 penalty kills.
Elsewhere in the NHL, St. Louis beat Detroit 2-1 and Colorado edged Buffalo 2-1.
