Rackell's Third-Period Goal Helps Ducks Beat Wild 3-1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rickard Rakell scored the go-ahead goal with 6:19 left in the third period and rookie John Gibson made 25 saves, leading the Anaheim Ducks to a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
Chris Stewart also scored for the Ducks, who are 11-2-0 in their last 13 games against Minnesota. Jakob Silfverberg added an empty-netter with 49 seconds remaining.
Jarret Stoll scored for the Wild, who have lost five in a row. Devan Dubnyk stopped 24 shots.
Rakell finished off a slick passing play with Corey Perry and Patrick Maroon, beating Dublyk from the right of the net for his 10th goal. Before that, Perry was the only player on the Ducks' roster with double digits.
Stewart tied it 1-all at 1:46 of the first when he redirected Shea Theodore's 50-foot wrist shot over Dubnyk's glove. Theodore, a 20-year-old defenseman promoted from San Diego of the AHL on Dec. 28 after Cam Fowler sprained his right knee, has four points in his last four games.
Neither team had a shot on net during the first 6 1/2 minutes. The Wild scored on their second one, as Stoll beat Gibson to the stick side with a 35-foot wrist shot from the slot at the 6:48 mark after Rakell lost the puck to Erik Haula while falling down inside the Anaheim blue line.
Stoll ended a goal-scoring scoring drought by the Wild of 127 minutes, 36 seconds since Thomas Vanek's goal 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 finals behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who stopped all 98 shots he faced.
Minnesota was 0 for 3 on the power play. The Wild are 1 for 32 with the man advantage over their last 16 games, and have had no more than three opportunities with the man advantage in any of their last eight games.
The Ducks, who came in with a league-best 88.9 penalty-killing percentage, have allowed just two goals in 37 short-handed situations over their last 11 games. This stretch included franchise-record streaks of eight games and 34 penalty kills.
Anaheim had only one power play opportunity, 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 its last eight games. They began the day second in the league in fewest penalty minutes per game (6.0) and fewest times short-handed (107).
NOTES: Stoll, who helped Los Angeles win Stanley Cup titles in 2012 and 2014, returns to Staples Center on Thursday night for the first time since leaving the Kings as a free agent. ... The Ducks completed their longest homestand of the season 5-3-0 and will play 11 of their next 13 on the road. ... Minnesota C Mikael Granlund has one goal in his last 27 games, an empty-netter. ... Anaheim D Hampus Lindholm played in his 200th regular-season game on his 22nd birthday. ... Vanek and Perry among three players from the 2003 draft with at least 300 goals. The other is Carolina C Eric Staal. ... Dubnyk beat the Ducks 3-0 on Oct. 24 at Minnesota, facing only 15 shots. ... The Ducks are 0 for 15 on the power play against Minnesota since the start of last season.
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