Hughes has 4 assists, Wild defeat Ducks to push point streak to 5

ANAHEIM -- Quinn Hughes tied his NHL career high with four assists for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

The Wild defenseman has 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) in 10 games since he was acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 12.

"You're a little bit passive to start. You want to fit in. You're getting to know everyone and coming to the fourth or third best team in the League. It's not about you," Hughes said. "They also traded a lot for me, so you've got to be yourself and just find that fine line. I think just shooting the puck a little more today, and not being as passive and just playing the way I probably would the last couple years."

Danila Yurov scored twice, Yakov Trenin had a goal and an assist, and Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists for the Wild (25-10-7), who have a five-game point streak (3-0-2) and are 10-1-2 in their past 13 games.

Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves after he was named to Team Sweden for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 earlier Friday.

Beckett Sennecke and Troy Terry scored, and Lukas Dostal made 29 saves for the Ducks (21-17-3), who have lost five in a row (0-4-1).

"We want to keep building and we want to learn from our mistakes, but at some point, we can't make those mistakes anymore," Anaheim captain Radko Gudas said.

Minnesota went on a power play at 5:29 of the first period and scored 10 seconds into the man-advantage for a 1-0 lead.

Hughes, who was named to the U.S. Olympic team’s preliminary roster in June, took a shot from above the right circle that hit Eriksson Ek in front of the crease. Jackson LaCombe and Cutter Gauthier were unable to clear the bouncing puck before Kirill Kaprizov shot it into the net at 5:39.

Gustavsson made his best stop of the opening period when he turned away Chris Kreider at the end of a 3-on-1 rush at 10:37.

Kreider has not scored in the past 15 games after scoring 13 goals in the first 22.

"It was a pretty fun first period to watch," Gustavsson said. "We went back and forth with them, switching up some chances."

Dostal made nine saves to help kill two minor penalties on Sennecke in the first five minutes of second period, but Yurov scored at 8:10 to make it 2-0. Hughes took a slap shot from the left point that went off the stick blade of Trenin, off the right skate of Yurov and into the net.

"I try to do good things on the ice and just working in the gym," Yurov said. "Try and get better every day."

Sennecke cut it to 2-1 at 13:46 when the puck came to him off a face-off in the Minnesota zone and he scored with a spinning wrist shot from above the left hash marks for his NHL rookie-leading 13th goal of the season.

"We're playing catch-up hockey a lot too, which is not conducive to solidifying where we need to get to," Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We'll find it but tonight was a little disappointing."

Minnesota reestablished the two-goal lead 59 seconds later.

Hughes fed Trenin for a one-timer from the right circle and the puck hit Dostal in the midsection before sliding through his pads for a 3-1 lead at 14:45.

"Got my parents in the stands," Trenin said. "My first goal in front of my mom, so it's special."

Yurov tipped in a shot by Hughes to stretch the lead to 4-1 at 3:21 of the third period.

"I think that as we get into 20 games, 30 games, it'll be like I've been here a couple years," Hughes said. "I'm looking forward to that."

Nico Sturm scored short side from the left circle of the rush to make it 5-1 at 15:02.

Terry scored from in close off a face-off win for the 5-2 final at 17:27.

“I thought we dictated the pace in the first. In the second period, we overextended a few shifts," Gudas said. "We couldn’t get the puck behind their blue line. … We had some long shifts and, over time, it kind of built up.”

NOTES: Hughes established a Wild record for the most assists in a game by a Minnesota defenseman. He also tied the Wild's record for points in a game by a defenseman (Mathew Dumba, March 29, 2018) and had his fourth career four-assist game to tie Phil Housley for the fourth-most by a United States-born defenseman in NHL history. Gary Suter (eight), Chris Chelios (six) and Brian Leetch (six) are the only ones with more. … Minnesota has won seven straight against Anaheim and is 20-1-0 in the past 21 meetings. ... Eriksson Ek has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past 13 games. ... Sennecke's 13 goals are the most by an Anaheim teenager in team history.