ANAHEIM -- Rickard Rakell scored with 6:19 remaining in the game to help the Anaheim Ducks to a 3-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Honda Center on Wednesday.
Corey Perry found Pat Maroon out wide and Maroon fed Rakell in front of the net for his 10th goal of the season to break a 1-1 tie. The goal established a new career high for Rakell.
Rakell, Ducks hand Wild fifth straight loss
By
Abbey Mastracco / NHL.com Correspondent
"I don't know how many times we do that in practice but it was nice to see it go in," Rakell said. "It's huge for us. We've been talking about getting all the points we can get and we played a pretty solid game tonight."
Coach Bruce Boudreau disagreed and said Rakell's goal was the only pretty part of the game.
"It was a really nice goal, there's no doubt," Boudreau said. "But it was a pretty sloppy game and ended up with a beautiful, beautiful goal."
Boudreau mixed up the lines throughout the game in an effort to generate more secondary scoring. Although he said it wasn't the cleanest effort, the results were somewhat successful because three different lines scored.
"It was such a sloppy game, it was hard to tell," Boudreau said. "[Ryan] Getzlaf's line got a goal, [Andrew] Cogliano's line got a goal and Perry's line got a goal. We got three goals from three different lines, which is good."
Rakell and Perry showed an obvious chemistry throughout and a revamped top line capitalized on an early chance when Chris Stewart redirected Shea Theodore's shot into the net at 10:46 in the first period to tie the game at 1-1.
Getzlaf centered that line with Stewart and David Perron on the wings. The Anaheim captain admitted that he wasn't completely comfortable but also wasn't completely uncomfortable without his longtime linemate Perry.
"You're going to take some learning curves," Getzlaf said. "You're going to need to know different people and where they're going to be. But we've got to find ways to work guys into the lineup and get their minutes. I thought tonight was a pretty good job of that."
Anaheim goalie John Gibson made 25 saves in the final game of an eight-game homestand. The Ducks finished 5-3-0.
Jakob Silfverberg scored an empty-net goal at 19:11 to cap another poor third period performance from Minnesota. The Wild has allowed eight third-period goals in the past seven games, including two in each of the past two games.
"When it comes down to crunch time, we need to be prepared to give it all we've got," Wild forward Charlie Coyle said. "Nothing to hold back. They tightened up and they played a little better when they got out there and we've got to do the same."
The Wild took a 1-0 lead when Erik Haula set Jarret Stoll up for a snap shot from the slot 6:48 into the game. It was the first goal in three games for Minnesota.
Minnesota went 0-for-3 with the man-advantage and has gone scoreless on the power play the past 11 games (0-for-24). Down 2-1 at 16:05 in the third period, Perron was whistled for holding but the Wild managed a single shot on goal.
The inability to score with or without the extra man is puzzling for Minnesota, especially when the Wild feels as though they're generating offense and quality scoring chances.
"I feel like we had some good stuff around the net and some good possession in the zone, but you leave the night with zeroes and you lose the game 3-1," Wild forward Zach Parise said. "It's our responsibility to score some goals."
Devan Dubnyk made 24 saves in the Wild's fifth straight loss. Minnesota (22-16-8) has scored four goals in five games and will finish a back-to-back Southern California trip Thursday at the Los Angeles Kings.
"It's not easy, it's not fun," Wild forward Mikael Granlund said. "Everybody knows that, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We need to keep doing things better and tomorrow we have a new chance."
