(Sports Network) – The Ducks don’t want to make blowing third-period leads a habit, but so far it has only cost them one point over their last three games.
Set to embark on a seven-game road trip in the coming week, Anaheim welcomes the Minnesota Wild this evening to the Honda Center.
The Ducks have gone to a shootout in each of their last three games, winning twice after blowing two-goal leads in the third period in each contest. They rebounded to post a 3-2 triumph over the Flames on Friday thanks to shootout tallies from Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.
Jonas Hiller, who made 37 saves, stopped two of the three skaters he faced in the breakaway session.
“The good part is we won tonight,” Hiller said. “The bad part is we had a two- goal lead and we gave it up again. It shouldn’t have happened. In the end, we’ll be happy with the two points. We have to do better in the third.”
Lubomir Visnovsky and Dan Sexton scored in regulation for the Ducks, who are 5-2-1 in their last eight games.
Forward Teemu Selanne has missed six of the Ducks’ last 10 games with a lingering groin injury, including Friday’s contest. The 40-year-old could sit out this game and has 10 goals and 18 assists on the season.
Anaheim improved to 10-6-1 at home this season and kicks off its lengthy road trip on Wednesday in Washington. The first five games of that swing are all on the east coast.
Minnesota is closing out a four-game road trip of its own and improved to 2-0-1 on the trek with last night’s 3-2 overtime victory in Los Angeles.
Mikko Koivu and Cal Clutterbuck both scored regulation goals off stick- handling mistakes by Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick and Brent Burns got the game-winner 2:50 into overtime on the power play.
With Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty off for interference, Burns one-timed a feed from current teammate and former King Patrick O’Sullivan past Quick from the slot to give the Wild their second straight win following an 0-3-2 slide.
“It’s nice to get a power-play goal against this team since they’ve only allowed one at home,” Burns said. “So we knew it would be a tough job. We killed a lot of penalties. It was a gutsy effort by everybody, everyone blocking shots.”
Jose Theodore made 24 saves in the victory, which came without Matt Cullen (groin) and John Madden (undisclosed) in the lineup.
The Wild were also overtime winners the last time they faced the Ducks, posting a 2-1 win at home on Nov. 17 thanks to Antti Miettinen’s game-winner. That victory was Minnesota’s fifth in its last seven versus the Ducks, but it has lost two straight and three of its last four at the Honda Center.