ANAHEIM, Calif.—A return to Honda Center following a winless four-game road trip did the Anaheim Ducks no good Tuesday night, March 19.
Filip Gustavsson recorded his third shutout this season, Kirill Kaprizov extended his point streak to eight games with the 150th goal of his NHL career, and the Minnesota Wild shut out the Ducks for the second time in six days, 4–0.
Gustavsson stopped 27 shots for his sixth career shutout. Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, while Jon Merrill and Jacob Lucchini also scored. Minnesota has won four of its past five games and picked up a point in its eighth consecutive game, having posted a 6–0–2 mark during the point streak.
John Gibson made 28 saves as Anaheim dropped its seventh straight game and was blanked for the third time in four outings, including a 2–0 loss at Minnesota on March 14.
It is the first time in the Ducks’ 30-year franchise history that they have had two losing streaks of at least seven games in the same season. Anaheim had an eight-game skid in November after having started the campaign with nine wins in its first 15 games.
After the Wild scored twice in the opening two minutes of the second period, Kaprizov made it 3–0 at 11:50 of the middle period, converting on the power play.
Kaprizov jammed in the puck with plenty of traffic around the net. He has scored a goal in five consecutive games and has 10 goals and 14 points during his point streak.
Kaprizov is in his fourth season with the Wild. He reached 150 goals in 265 games, the fastest of the four players in franchise history to reach that milestone.
Hartman put in a rebound 35 seconds into the second period after Gibson made a pad save on a shot by Marcus Foligno. It was Hartman’s 18th of the season and his third in five games.
Merrill made it 2–0 at 1:56 with a wrist shot near the boards just outside the left faceoff circle that went off the far post and into the net. In his third NHL game, Marat Khusnutdinov picked up his first point with an assist.
Lucchini scored his second of the season 13:03 into the third period on a two-on-one break.
