Preview: Ducks' Road Trip Continues Tonight in Minnesota

Improved play, but similar results. Such is the case with the Ducks, who despite stringing together more consistent performances lately have suffered the same fate. It happened in Winnipeg on Sunday and again two nights ago in Detroit. Leads vanished, games vanquished.

Their winless streak shouldn't be in double digits (12, if you need to know). They've held leads in the third period in three of their past four games, and have lost all of them. Those are games that need to be won. The Ducks need to find a way to get their mental fortitude back. A win would help, of course.
After Tuesday's 3-1 loss in Detroit, a game the Ducks led in the third period, head coach Randy Carlyle told reporters the following: "It's like 'Oh my god, how can this happen again?' But it happened. The guys are giving everything they've got and I can see the frustration. We're making too many mental mistakes."
The Ducks know they have what it takes to get back on track. They proved it by winning 11 of 13 not long after they suffered through a seven-game winless stretch earlier this season. But even this stretch of games is unchartered waters for their captain.
Ryan Getzlaf has been through a lot over the course of his 14-year NHL career, but the winless streak is weighing heavily on him. "Hardest thing I've been through in my career by far," he told reporters. "Been through some tough years, but this one, having a stretch like this, I've never been through. It's been really tough. I can give you every cliché in the book with the way things are going now."
Tonight, the Ducks will have another crack at ending the slump as they take on the Minnesota Wild a little more than 24 hours after the two clubs traded with one another. Yesterday, the Ducks acquired forward Justin Kloos from the Wild in exchange for Pontus Aberg - a rare trade between teams set to face each other in such a short period. Aberg's equipment will be moved from the visiting dressing room inside Xcel Energy Center to the home locker room, though it remains to be seen if he plays tonight. The Ducks also made two additional trades last night,
[acquiring center Derek Grant from the Pittsburgh Penguins
in exchange for Joseph Blandisi, and
Michael Del Zotto from the Vancouver Canucks
for Luke Schenn and a 2020 seventh-round pick.]
At the moment, the Wild is clinging to the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference with 49 points, two more than the Ducks, but they also have a game in hand. Minnesota has gone 6-4-0 over its last 10 games, including a 3-2 shootout victory against the LA Kings on Tuesday. Now healthy again, veteran forward Zach Parise is having an impressive bounce back season by leading the Wild in scoring with 41 points (19g/22a). He also co-leads the club in power-play goals (6) and ranks third in overtime winners (3). Devan Dubnyk is the workhorse in goal, posting a 17-16-3 record, 2.71 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 37 appearances this season.
Maybe a few fresh faces will give the Ducks a boost tonight. In the wake of injuries to center Ryan Kesler and right wing Jakob Silfverberg, the Ducks recalled forwards Troy Terry and Max Jones from AHL San Diego yesterday. In addition, the Ducks recalled defenseman Andrej Sustr and reassigned right wing Kiefer Sherwood and defenseman Jake Dotchin.
Terry appeared in six games with the Ducks this season and went scoreless, but took the AHL by storm when he got sent down. After joining the Gulls on Oct. 19, Terry recorded 37 points (16g/21a) in 32 games, and led all AHL rookies in scoring, assists and points-per game (1.16), and ranked third in goals at the time of his recall yesterday. A fifth-round pick (148th overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft, Terry was the only AHL player to record multiple point streaks of nine games or more this season (11 games, 16 points (7g/9a) from Oct. 19-Nov. 23 and nine games, 12 points (4g/8a) from Dec. 8-30).
Jones, meanwhile, has yet to make his NHL debut, but collected 24 points (12g/12a) in 32 games for the Gulls this season. The 6-3, 220-pound forward ranked third among San Diego leaders in goals, and was second among team rookies in points, goals, assists and plus/minus (+7). Jones had nine points (4g/5a) in his last eight AHL games, including a pair of career-best three-point contests on Jan. 12 at Milwaukee (1g/2a) and Dec. 30 at San Jose (1g/2a).