It’s getting crowded behind the Minnesota Wild, now losers in five straight games, in the race for a Western Conference Wild Card spot.
The Wild lost 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks to conclude Rivalry Night on Wednesday. Scoring woes once again caught up with Minnesota. After getting shut out in back-to-back games before traveling out to California, the Wild managed only one goal on netminder John Gibson and the Ducks.
That goal was courtesy of Jarret Stoll. It was his second of the season, coming less than seven minutes into the game. And that was it. Trailing by a goal, Minnesota was also unsuccessful with a late third-period power play.
The Wild ended the night 0-for-3 on the power play.
Coyle: "we can't expect to win one-goal games when we score one goal." #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 21, 2016
Granlund: "it's not fun, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves."
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 21, 2016
Rickard Rakell scored the winner, as he finished off a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play late in the third period, as the Ducks finally broke the game open. Goals were difficult to come by prior to that.
Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk did his best to give his team a chance to win, with 24 saves on 26 shots, including this great glove save on Corey Perry in the second period.
The Wild are now one point up on the Colorado Avalanche for the first Wild Card spot, while the Ducks closed to within five points of Minnesota and two points back of the Arizona Coyotes in the Pacific Division.