Kevin Fiala had two goals and an assist and Mats Zuccarello added a goal and an assist to lead the visiting Minnesota Wild to a 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.
It was the 10th two-goal game of Fiala’s career. Victor Rask, who finished 13-of-14 on faceoffs (93 percent), and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored goals, and Kirill Kaprizov added two assists for Minnesota, which completed a sweep of its back-to-back with the Ducks. Kaapo Kahkonen finished with 26 saves.
David Backes scored a goal for Anaheim, which endured its third straight loss and fourth in five games. John Gibson had 24 saves.
Minnesota scored twice in 70 seconds late in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.
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Zuccarello, playing in just his third game of the season following surgery on his right arm in November, scored his first goal of the season with a wrist shot from the left circle over Gibson’s glove into the top far corner.
Fiala followed when he outraced defenseman Ben Hutton for a loose puck on the right wing and then fired a wrist shot that hit Gibson’s glove and trickled over the goal line.
Fiala made it 3-0 early in the second period with a power play goal, just the fourth in 52 power-play chances this season for the Wild, when he buried a rebound from the left door step for his sixth goal in the last seven games.
Anaheim cut it to 3-1 near the end of the period when Backes deflected a Josh Mahura shot from the left point inside the left post for his second goal of the season.
Rask, playing for the first time since Feb. 2 after being placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, extended Minnesota’s lead to 4-1 early in the third period with his fourth goal of the season when he one-timed a Kaprizov pass from the right circle through Gibson’s pads.
Eriksson Ek finished the scoring with 5:34 to go when he finished an odd-man rush with a wrist shot from the left circle past Gibson’s blocker side for his sixth goal of the season.
–Field Level Media