Minnesota Wild cruise into Anaheim after a big win in LA

Beating the Anaheim Ducks would be a sweet ending to a three-game road trip to California for the Minnesota Wild.

With the win in the City of Angels last night Zach Parise now has 700 points in his career. He tallied a game-winning goal and an assist in a 4-1 Minnesota Wild victory against the Kings.

The monkey is finally off the back of forward Nino Niederreiter as he tallied his first goal of the season against the Kings. Last season the Swiss-born RW had 18 goals in 63 regular season games.

Minnesota hopefully had some time to get some sun and rest today as they are on the tail end of back to back games in Southern California. On back to backs, the Minnesota Wild are 2-2-0 on the first night and 3-0-0 on second-night games.

Alex Stalock is the confirmed starter tonight according to dailyfaceoff.com, Stalock last played in Edmonton on October 30th and made 34 saves on 37 shots. He has won two of his three starts this season.

Opponent: Anaheim Ducks

The city of Anaheim and the Ducks organisation are in the midst of celebrating their 25th season as a franchise in the NHL.

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Like their Southern California counterparts, the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim is off to a rocky start this season. The Ducks started the season great with a  record of 5-1-1 record in their first seven games. Since then Anaheim has stumbled to a 7-7-3 record.

Some of the team’s struggles could be a result of the injury bug that his bitten the Ducks this season. 107 man games have been lost for the Ducks.

Despite injuries, the Ducks have won their last two home games and beat Calgary 3-2 on Wednesday at home. Ryan Getzlaf scored his 49th career game-winning goal in the win. The Ducks Captain has points in five of the last six games.

Anaheim has yet to confirm who will get the start in goal tonight.

The Rundown

Minnesota Wild (9-4-2) at Anaheim Ducks (7-7-3)
Puck Drop: 9:08 p.m. CT
Radio: KFAN FM and affiliates
Watch: Fox Sports North; Fox Sports app
All-Time Record vs. Ducks: 28-28-6 (15-10-5 at Xcel Energy Center, 13-18-1 at Anaheim)
17-18: Wild went (1-1-1) vs. Ducks last season

Team Series Leaders:

Minnesota Wild: Koivu leads Minnesota with 28 points (10-18=28) in 42 regular season games against Anaheim.
Anaheim Ducks: Perry leads the Ducks with 38 points (19-19=38) in 44 games against Minnesota.
Wild Goalies vs. Ducks: Dubnyk is 7-8-2 with a 1.57 GAA and a .924 SV% in 18 games against the Ducks. Alex Stalock has played in two games against the Ducks.
Ducks Goalies vs. Wild: Gibson is 4-1-1 with a 2.57 GAA, and a .951 SV% in 7 career starts against the Wild. Miller is (7-7-0) with a 3.41 GAA and .889 SV% in14 career starts.

Injuries:

Minnesota Wild: Matt Hendricks (undisclosed injury)
Anaheim Ducks: Corey Perry (knee) Korbinian Holzer (wrist) Ondrej Kase (concussion) Carter Rowney (upper body) Max Comtois (lower body) Nick Ritchie (upper body)

The Minnesota Wild should have some extra motivation to get a win for their coach tonight. Bruce Boudreau coached the Ducks from 2011-2016. He had an excellent regular season record with Anaheim (208-104-40). Not being able to win in the playoffs though resulted in Boudreau getting fired in 2016.

Let’s hope Boudreau can leave the Honda Center with a smile on his face after a big win over his former team.