At the rink
The Minnesota Wild will go for the season sweep of the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday when the teams play for the final time during the regular campaign at Xcel Energy Center.
Minnesota has never swept a season series against the Anaheim, winning three of four meetings on three different occasions (2006, 2008, 2011). This year is the first time Minnesota has posted at least a .500 record against the Ducks since 2012, when it went 2-2.
"They play big and heavy and it's important for us to stick to what we're doing and not get involved in the after-the-whistle, the scrums and the physical stuff that they like to do," said Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. "We've had a couple of real good games against these guys so far; they've been intense and exciting so that's what we should expect tonight."
Minnesota defeated Anaheim 5-3 the last time these teams played on Jan. 21 in St. Paul, a game the Ducks led 3-2 until late in the third period. For 50 minutes, Anaheim was able to dictate the play and keep the game at their pace.
With just over six minutes left, Erik Haula tied the score as Minnesota scored three times over a span of 1 minute, 59 seconds to secure a victory.
It wasn't until the final seven minutes that the Wild was finally able to play the game at its pace, and the results bore that out.
Tuesday, it will be up to Minnesota to try to get to its game early on and take advantage of a Ducks team playing the final game of a six-game road trip that began nearly two weeks ago.
"We can sit there and say we want to dictate this because of our speed, but that's a nullified game by them being physical," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "You see the way the game is being played and we get some adrenaline going, if we score one ... and when we score one, especially at home, we have a tendency to come back and get another one [quick]."
