Nicolas Deslauriers scored a goal just over four minutes into the third period and the Anaheim Ducks earned their first victory of the season, getting the best of the visiting Minnesota Wild 1-0 on Monday.
Deslauriers took a feed from the right corner by defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and scored into a wide-open goal behind Wild goaltender Cam Talbot at 4:09 of the period. Deslauriers became the first Ducks player to score other than Max Comtois, who had all three Anaheim goals in the first two games.
Anaheim goaltender John Gibson had 34 saves in his 20th career shutout. He was poised for a 1-0 shutout at Las Vegas on Saturday but the Golden Knights scored with 1:22 remaining in regulation and won it seven seconds into overtime.
Minnesota’s fate was sealed when Nick Bjugstad was called for a two-minute charging penalty with 3:44 to play when he crashed into the back of Gibson behind the Anaheim goal.
The Wild continued to have issues on the power play, going 0-for-5 on Monday to leave them 0-for-16 on the season after failing to score on the man advantage 11 times in two early games against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Ducks and Wild will complete their back-to-back series Wednesday at Anaheim.
Despite the lack of goals in the first two periods, the Wild were in a better position for victory than they were in their opening two games of the season. Minnesota trailed 3-1 at the start of the third period in each of those games against the Kings before rallying for the victory.
The Ducks earned the shutout even though defenseman Josh Manson did not return after the opening period with an upper-body injury.
Manson ended the first period in the penalty box after fighting with the Wild’s Jordan Greenway with 40 seconds remaining before the first intermission. He did not return to the box to start the second period. Manson finished the night with six minutes of ice time.
Ducks defensemen Shattenkirk and Hampus Lindholm each were on the ice for 29 minutes as a result.
–Field Level Media
