Wild shut out Ducks, extend point streak to 8

ANAHEIM -- Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves, and the Minnesota Wild shut out the Anaheim Ducks for the second time in six days, 4-0 at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Minnesota also shut out Anaheim 2-0 on Thursday in Minneapolis.

"We knew we were going to spend a lot of time in their zone, and the guys played really good," Gustavsson said. "We were down there most of the game."

Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, and Matt Boldy had two assists for the Wild (34-27-8), who extended their point streak to eight games (6-0-2) and moved to within three points of the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

"We put ourselves in this situation, and we need to find some points somewhere," Gustavsson said. "Right now, we're doing our best to do that."

John Gibson made 28 saves for the Ducks (23-43-3), who have lost seven in a row.

"Trying to keep up the mood is not easy [after] losing seven games in a row," Anaheim forward Frank Vatrano said. "It's not fun losing. We just have to get back on track soon."

Hartman gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead 35 seconds into the second period. Gibson made the save on a one-timer by Marcus Foligno, but Hartman had inside position on Ducks rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger and scored on the rebound.

Jon Merrill made it 2-0 at 1:56 with a wrist shot from just above the left circle through a screen by Marat Khusnutdinov, who was credited with the secondary assist, his first NHL point (third game).

"He's so talented too, it's fun to see," Wild forward Frederick Gaudreau said. "I'm sure it's weird at first, being new to everything, but he was good right off the bat, and he just keeps getting better, so it's awesome to see."

Kirill Kaprizov extended the lead to 3-0 at 11:50 when he scored on a power play after drawing a hooking penalty on Urho Vaakanainen.

"It wasn't a bad first period by any means, but I just didn't think we had a ton going on," Minnesota coach John Hynes said. "Then a couple changes, and then we got off to a quick start in the second, and I think we were able to build the game the right way from there."

Jacob Lucchini made it 4-0 at 13:03 of the third period, scoring off a pass from Adam Beckman on a 2-on-1 after Zellweger turned the puck over near his blue line.

"There's got to be a sense of danger there, and you've just got to throw the puck down deep," Ducks coach Greg Cronin said of Zellweger’s turnover. "You've got to learn that. He's a rookie, and he'll learn from his mistakes, but I don't care what the score is, you just don't do that."

NOTES: It was the third shutout of the season for Gustavsson. ... Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin left the game early in the third period after he fell to the ice following a check by Alex Killorn. Hynes did not have an update after the game. … The Wild are 15-2-0 in their past 17 games against the Ducks and 12-2-0 in their past 14 games in Anaheim. ... Kaprizov extended his goal streak to five games and his point streak to eight games (10 goals, four assists). Kaprizov (265 games) required the fourth-fewest games among active players to reach 150 career goals, trailing only Auston Matthews (223 games), Alex Ovechkin (234 games) and Steven Stamkos (245 games). … Boldy has 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in his past 19 games. ... The Ducks went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill and are 11-for-22 in the past five games.