Kaprizov has 2 goals, assist as Wild ease past Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

Kaprizov has eight straight multipoint road games (eight goals, 14 assists) and took over the NHL points lead with 27 (nine goals, 18 assists). It was his second straight three-point game after he had three assists in Thursday's 5-2 win against the San Jose Sharks. His 17 three-point games over the past two seasons are tied for third in the League with Connor McDavid, behind only Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov (25) and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (18).

"He's driving our team. That's the biggest thing. You need your horses going," Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said of Kaprizov. "He's our star player. When he's going, the whole bench is going."

Marco Rossi had a goal and an assist, Jake Middleton and Foligno scored, and Filip Gustavsson made 33 saves for the Wild (10-2-2), who have won five of their last six and are off to the best 14-game start in team history.

"We've taken it a game at a time, honestly. That's our mindset," Wild forward Frederick Gaudreau said. "I think if you do that, you get results and you can get addicted to that feeling of just going at it every single day and not focusing too far ahead."

Robby Fabbri scored his 100th NHL goal, Mason McTavish also scored and Lukas Dostal made 26 saves for the Ducks (4-7-2), who have lost four in a row (0-3-1).

"We can take games over if we just continue to buy in and roll, come shift after shift and set our teammates up and put them in good spots," Ducks defenseman Brian Dumoulin said. "Changing in the offensive zone and taking shorter shifts and just being a little bit more selfless.”

The Wild scored three times in a 5:01 span of the first period.

Joel Eriksson Ek got the puck back after his shot was saved by Dostal and he passed it to Middleton for a one-timer from the slot and a 1-0 lead at 7:31.

Foligno scored with a wrist shot from the right circle off a 2-on-1 break to make it 2-0 at 9:11.

The Wild were on a delayed penalty when Kaprizov scored with a wrist shot from the right circle to extend the lead to 3-0 at 12:32.

Ducks forward Trevor Zegras was awarded a penalty shot at 2:35 of the second period, but his backhand try went over the net.

The Ducks avoided getting shut out for a third straight game by the Wild dating to last season when Fabbri scored with a wrist shot from the right circle to cut it to 3-1 at 2:16 of the third period.

Minnesota defenseman Zach Bogosian was called for a four-minute double-minor high-sticking penalty on Troy Terry at 9:12 of the third period, but Anaheim couldn't capitalize.

"It's such a crucial part of the game too," Gustavsson said. "It's 3-1 there and if they get one, they're just one shot away from tying it up and it puts more stress on us as players, but we were out there blocking some big shots."

The Ducks went 0-for-6 with the man-advantage.

“It’s tough. I get it," Dumoulin said. "When goals aren't going in, obviously the guys can get frustrated and your game can slip a little because you cheat a little bit to the offensive side. I think we’ve just got to know that if we defend hard, we'll get chances off of it."

The Wild took advantage of a turnover behind the Anaheim net and Rossi scored to make it 4-1 at 14:20.

Kaprizov added a power play goal with 2:16 left to make it 5-1.

McTavish scored on a deflection with 13 seconds left for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: The Wild are 16-2-0 in their past 18 games against Anaheim and 12-2-0 in their past 14 games at Honda Center, outscoring Anaheim 48-22. ... Minnesota leads the NHL with 15 road points (7-1-1). ... Kaprizov's eight straight multipoint road games tie Roman Josi and Steven Stamkos for the longest among active players. The last player with a longer run was Wayne Gretzky with nine straight multipoint road games in 1990-91. Kaprizov has 100 multipoint games in his NHL career. ... Kaprizov has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in 18 games against Anaheim. ... Kaprizov's power play goal was his 60th with the Wild, tying Mikko Koivu for the second-most in franchise history. ... Gaudreau assisted on Foligno's goal to extend his NHL career-long point streak to six games (two goals, six assists). ... Anaheim goalie John Gibson came off injured reserve after missing the first 12 games following an appendectomy and he backed up Dostal.