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Ducks show scrap but fall to Wild for 5th straight loss

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Ducks might be the world’s most interesting six-win team.

They are adept at rallying and equally capable of blowing a lead. In John Gibson, they have a goalie who won’t hesitate to mix it up, a shootout wizard in Trevor Zegras, and Troy Terry who is not emerging but has arrived as elite.

Despite all those elements packed into one game, the Ducks remained at six wins after losing 5-4 in a shootout to Minnesota on Saturday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center for their fifth consecutive loss. The Wild have not lost to the Ducks (6-16-3) in 12 games.

Zegras was the lone Anaheim player to score in the shootout, and Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy scored for the Wild in the shootout.

Kaprizov had tied it 4-4 with a wrist shot from the slot with 2:35 left in regulation, which was his 15th goal of the season.

Terry scored once and added an assist and Zegras had one goal and one assist. The other Ducks goals were from Ryan Strome and defenseman Cam Fowler. Two of the Ducks’ goals were on the power play, but they could not convert on the man advantage in overtime when Kaprizov went off for hooking.

“That’s the next step for this power-play unit,” Terry said. “Not to be satisfied with, ‘OK, we’ve got two goals in this game. We did our job.’ When we get a chance 4 on 3 to put the game away, it doesn’t matter if we scored two or zero. We didn’t do it. That one is tough to swallow.”

Terry’s power-play goal broke a 3-3 tie at 10:36 of the third period as he knocked a rebound past Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson. Anaheim had gone on the power play after Minnesota was assessed a minor for too many men on the ice.

“I thought tonight we did a better job – we had the lead and we just weren’t in protect mode,” Terry said. “I think we’ve done that whenever we’ve had the lead this year. We’ve stopped pushing the other team and just sitting back.

“Tonight we got a lead, myself included, we had a lot of really good chances to make it a two-goal game. That’s what a lot of these good teams do.”

The Ducks’ offense finally flickered to life after scoring one goal in the first two games on the trip at Nashville and Dallas.

“It’s one of those games where, man, you really want to get both points, so the team can feel rewarded for a good road game,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “Overall, we did a great job. Goaltending was excellent straight across the board. Coming into a building like this and grabbing a point is certainly a step in the right direction.”

The Wild had 49 shots on goal, which makes it the seventh time Gibson has faced more than 40 shots in a game this season.

“He was John Gibson tonight,” Terry said. “He was making big saves the whole night. He was even getting in fights. He is the guy that gives this team energy and the guy that this team kind of runs off of.”

So about that tussle …

Gibson and Wild forward Jordan Greenway got into it in the third period and both received roughing penalties. Veteran Gibson watchers had a feeling something was coming.

“I think anyone can tell, he’s a fiery guy,” Terry said. “He’s got some passion out there. That’s what makes him so good. We love to see when he’s not going to take it. He had mentioned it before. They were getting a little physical with him in there. He said it beforehand, if it happens again, he was going to do it.

“It’s a testament to the way he plays goalie. A lot of passion and honestly it’s enjoyable for us to see.”

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Ducks rookie Mason McTavish tried his best to hold off Greenway in the crease. That was, essentially, a good-luck with that assignment.

“I’ve known Greenway for awhile, he’s big guy,” Terry said.

Greenway, for his part, was expecting it.

“I like those things,” Greenway said. “He’s a guy, he stops the puck a lot. He’s a good goalie. So I figure anything you can do to try and shake him up a bit this or that, you know. He gave me a whack, a punch here or there. I’m not gonna back down – goalie, player, ref, whatever.”

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