*Photo from TSN*
Lately, this season series hasn't been so wild for Anaheim. Matt Dumba scored, Kirill Kaprizov added two goals, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Anaheim Ducks with a 4-1 victory on Wednesday night in Anaheim.
With the win, the Wild continue a hot streak with a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games. They've now won 11 straight games against the Ducks, the longest win streak against any team in their history. It's also the second longest active streak in the NHL, with the Boston Bruins having 19 straight wins against the Arizona Coyotes.
Wild head coach Dean Evason said of the game that "When pucks aren’t going into the net and you are not feeling good, you need looks on the power play to get you going. We had a few more looks here tonight, it allowed us to feel good. Not only the guys on the ice but the guys on the bench feel that too."
After the first period went scoreless, the Ducks struck first. It was Pavol Regenda who did so, scoring his first NHL goal 13:24 into the second, giving the Ducks a 1-0 lead at the time. On the power play at the 16:37 mark of the second, Kaprizov scored to tie the game 1-1 for the Wild, notching his 9th goal of the season.
Early in the 3rd period, Matt Dumba gave the Wild a 2-1 lead, scoring his first goal of the season with Connor Dewar and Mason Shaw assisting. 3:23 into the final period was when Kaprizov struck again, giving the Wild a 3-1 lead on his second goal of the night. Joseph Cramarossa then scored at the 11:42 mark of the 3rd period to make the lead 4-1 for Minnesota.
Dumba said of how the game went that "Even in the first period, we had lots of chances. It was just a matter of time. We stuck with it and good things happened. To have that one on the power play go in, we were ready to come out for the third. We found our legs and knew we had to push for 20 more minutes."
Getting the start for the Wild was Filip Gustavsson, who played well enough to get his first win with the Wild. Gustavsson saved all but one of the 32 shots he was tasked with saving, which was good for a .969 save percentage to improve to 1-3-0 this season.
Starting for the Ducks opposite Gustavsson was number one goalie John Gibson. In his start, Gibson didn't fare as well as Gustavsson, taking the loss to fall to 2-8-1, stopping 35 out of 39 shots from the Wild for a .897 save percentage.
After the game, Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler said that "The pace was good. We got into some penalty trouble there. That’s always going to take you out of it a little bit, putting your penalty kill guys under a lot of duress. It’s hard to get into the rhythm of the game and that was a big issue in the third period for us."
Up next, the Ducks head north to Seattle for a matchup with the Kraken on Friday night, where Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to start. The Ducks host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday at home, with Gibson the likely starter.
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