Ducks’ woeful homestand continues with loss to Wild

ANAHEIM –– Halfway through their longest homestand of the season, the Ducks remained in search of their first win after a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday night at Honda Center dropped them to 0-3-0 during this residency.

After falling to lowly Chicago, the Ducks have faced two of the NHL’s best road teams in Vancouver and Minnesota – they’ve joined Winnipeg, Carolina, Florida and the New York Rangers among the early season’s road warriors – and fallen hard against both. The Ducks (4-7-2) have been gracious hosts, allowing their guests to compile an 14-5 aggregate score in those three matches.

Robby Fabbri scored his 100th career goal and Mason McTavish scored an academic goal in the final minute, while Lukáš Dostál came up with 25 of 30 saves.

Jake Middleton, Marcus Foligno and Kirill Kaprizov each scored a first-period goal for Minnesota (10-2-2). Kaprizov added an assist on Marco Rossi’s third-period insurance marker and scored a power-play goal assisted by Rossi, which vaulted Kaprizov to the top of the NHL’s points leaderboard. Brock Faber contributed two assists and Filip Gustavsson stopped 32 of 34 shots.

The Ducks generated some zone time and rush chances early, but Minnesota summarily took control of the game in a hail of missed shots and coverages by their hosts. The Wild put up goals at the 7:31, 9:11 and 12:32 marks of the first period.

Joel Eriksson-Ek’s sharp-angle shot and recovery allowed him to find Middleton in the high slot unmarked, where he picked his spot for a searing wrist shot high to the short side to make it 1-0 with his third goal of the campaign.

Middleton was up on a two-on-one rush with Marcus Foligno that developed in large part because Radko Gudas got tripped up in the offensive zone. As the duo zoomed in on Jackson LaCombe, Foligno elected to keep the puck and fire it past Dostál for his third goal of 2024-25. Frederick Gaudreau’s assist on the play extended his scoring surge to six games (eight points).

During a delayed penalty, Kaprizov levitated from the left point to the right faceoff dot, where he settled the puck and effortlessly burst forth with a perfectly placed shot that made the score 3-0 at the first intermission.

In the second period, the Ducks generated much more in the way of opportunities including a Trevor Zegras penalty shot, a sterling chance for Ross Johnston and bids in quick succession from Frank Vatrano and Troy Terry. All that and their 14-11 shot edge in the second period left little impression on the score, which remained 3-0 in favor of Minnesota through 40 minutes.

The third period carried over some of that intrigue and delivered the first Ducks goal, just 2:16 into the frame. Fabbri, whose work ethic was on display all night, beat Kaprizov to the puck just outside the Minnesota zone before he darted across the blue line and delivered a shot under the arm of Gustavsson. It was Fabbri’s second goal as a Duck and the 100th of his career.

Further thickening the plot were a pair of penalties – Matt Boldy’s hooking minor and Zach Bogosian’s double-minor for high-sticking – that effectively gave the Ducks six minutes of interrupted man-advantage time while trailing by two goals.

Not only did the Ducks’ power play, which had clicked of late with four goals in as many games, fail to convert on those three opportunities and three prior ones Friday, but the Wild put the game away 68 seconds later.

LaCombe’s ostensibly safe pass behind his own net to defense partner Olen Zellweger unraveled as it hit the side of the cage and came directly to Kaprizov, who found Rossi all alone at the back post for an uncontested tap-in when 5:40 showed on the game clock.

Rossi’s deflection was denied by a brilliant save by Dostál, but Kaprizov sneaked through a crowd to stuff in the rebound for a power-play goal with 2:16 to play.

As he did against Chicago, McTavish scored in the dying gasps of the match, this time 13 seconds before the final horn and a melee that ensued at center ice.