Ducks defeat Wild in 11-round shootout

ST. PAUL, Minn.-- The Anaheim Ducks won an 11-round shootout and moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a 3-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Nick Ritchie scored the deciding goal for the Ducks (29-20-11), who passed the Calgary Flames in the Pacific standings. Calgary hosted the Florida Panthers later Saturday.
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Wild highlights]
"Anytime you win a shootout that goes that long, you [have to] feel fortunate you got the extra point," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "There's big stops by our goaltender (John Gibson), and finally found a guy that found the back of the net, Nick Ritchie, five-hole shot, so we'll take it and move on."
The Wild (31-20-7) held a one-point lead over the Flames for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"Every game is big. Every single game I think from here on in is going to be like this," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "It's a grind for an awful lot of teams and it's going to be a battle of attrition. I think whichever team can handle it the best is going to succeed."
Ducks forward Ondrej Kase scored the tying goal for the second straight game, at 6:12 of the third period, to make it 2-2.

Corey Perry scored 50 seconds into the first period on the power play to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. Adam Henrique stripped Wild forward Mikael Granlund to get the puck loose for Perry, who slid it past goaltender Devan Dubnyk.
"We knew what was at stake tonight," Perry said. "They're a good hockey team over there. They pressure. They skate. They play hard. We were fortunate enough to find the bounce in that third period and then take it in the shootout."
Mikko Koivu tied the game 1-1 at 15:36 of the first with a slap shot from the blue line. Jason Zucker scored his NHL career-high 23rd goal when he redirected a Nate Prosser pass at 7:56 of the second period to make it 2-1.

Dubnyk made 36 saves, Gibson made 29. Kase kept the shootout going by scoring in the bottom of the fourth round. There were no goals in the next 13 attempts before Ritchie scored.
"It's always focus on [getting] two points," Gibson said. "I didn't have the best of luck so far in the year. Maybe I was a little too tense. It's not me. So I just went out there and tried to have fun."

Goal of the game

Ritchie's shootout goal in the 11th round.

Save of the game

Gibson's save on Charlie Coyle in the shootout.

Highlight of the game

Cam Fowler's blocked shot on Granlund with 1:05 left in overtime.

They said it

"Our goal is to qualify for the playoffs. We're on the road here and we've got our hockey club back together. We've started to get our hockey club back together and we've stated that we're going to have to earn our points down the road and this is just one of the examples of it, but we're not going to get too far ahead of ourselves. There's lots of hockey left, lots of points available to the teams we're competing with, and I'm pretty sure you're going to see it go right down to the wire." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle
"I hope not. But it's been like this since game two, so now we're at game 58, Anaheim's at game 60. I don't see it changing too much. I though initially it would be like a golf tournament where Thursday and Friday everybody's tight and Saturday's tight and it gets to be a little bit moving and by Sunday it sort of gets a life of its own and the cream comes to the top. I think there's a lot of teams, I guess, that are good this year." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

The 11 shootout rounds were the most in Wild history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The previous high was nine rounds, Feb. 11, 2011, at the St. Louis Blues. … Zucker scored 22 goals last season. … Ducks forward Ryan Kesler did not play and is day to day with a lower-body injury.

What's next

Ducks: At the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday (10 p.m. ET; ATTSN-RM, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Wild: At the New York Islanders on Monday (1 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, FS-N, NHL.TV)