Friday night was sixth road game for the Minnesota Wild on their seven-game roadie and they took two points in a 5-1 win over the suddenly hapless Anaheim Ducks.
Mikael Granlund struck twice and had an assist in the win.
The Wild improved to 1-4-2 and have won nine of 11.
Alex Stalock made 20 saves to get the win.
“We sat down early in the year, when we had meetings, and we wanted to be a much better team on the road this year,” Stalock said. “What comes with that is having fun on the road as a group.”
The longest road trip in franchise history has led to a 4-2-0 record thus far.
Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin and Jordan Greenway also scored for the Wild.
“It’s fun coaching any team that’s winning. It’s not fun coaching teams that are losing, and I’ve been on both ends of the thing,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said.
Pontus Aberg scored the line Ducks goal.
The Anaheim funk continues with the Ducks dropping 7-8-3.
“We didn’t have the execution level all night. I don’t think it was necessarily the three penalties we took in the first period,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. “It was right from the opening get-go. We didn’t seem to make a tape-to-tape pass, we didn’t seem to be able to execute, we didn’t get inside on anybody or win any of the 1-on-1 battles we’ve been winning our share of over the last little while. We were just a flat hockey club.”
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Ducks highlights]
John Gibson made 38 saves in the loss.
“We knew it was going to be a game that we needed to play tight. We needed to earn it. That’s how that team plays, and that’s how they’ve always been. That just shows we weren’t willing to do anything to win the game,” the Ducks’ Andrew Cogliano said after the loss.
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