ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Ducks will head into another offseason following a losing season, while the Minnesota Wild are headed where the Ducks hope to be in the near future – the playoffs.
Minnesota clinched a spot in the playoffs in dramatic fashion when Joel Eriksson Ek scored the tying goal with 20.9 seconds left in regulation, and Matt Boldy got the winner with 17.9 seconds remaining in overtime to beat the Ducks, 3-2, on Tuesday.
The crowd erupted again when the Wild sent retiring goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, set to retire after his 21st season in the NHL, out for overtime. Fleury made five saves, fending off a 4-on-3 power play.
With an empty net for the extra attacker, Boldy’s pass across the slot set up Eriksson Ek at the edge of the crease. Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal made a sprawling save with his stick, but a second whack at the puck got it across the line for his 14th goal of the season. That sent the game to overtime and guaranteed Minnesota the point it needed to wrap up a playoff spot.
Rookie Sam Colangelo had the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, Alex Killorn scored and Dostal stopped 37 shots for the Ducks (35-37-9, 79 points), who were eliminated from postseason contention 11 days ago and saw their dreams of a .500 finish come up short on Tuesday. The Ducks, who have not finished .500 or better since 2018, take a three-game losing streak into their regular-season finale against Winnipeg on Wednesday night.
Ducks rookie center Tim Washe, who was signed as a college free agent on Monday from national champion Western Michigan, made his NHL debut on the fourth line.
Marcus Johansson scored and Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves in regulation for the Wild (45-30-7, 97 points), who have the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference and will face Pacific Division champion Vegas in a best-of-seven first-round series.
The Wild hit the post twice in the first eight minutes before Johansson gave them a 1-0 lead at 9:47.
Minnesota caught the Ducks making a line change and Wild defenseman Jake Middleton made a stretch pass to Mats Zuccarello along the wall at the Ducks’ blue line.
Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas played the puck, leaving Johansson undefended and he sprung loose. Zuccarello slid the puck to Johansson for a short breakaway and he scored his 11th goal of the season.
The Ducks leveled the score at 13:48 of the first period.
Leo Carlsson brought the puck across the Minnesota blue line and dropped a pass for Cutter Gauthier at the left point. His wrist shot hit Middleton in front of the Wild net and Killorn poked the loose puck through the pads of Gustavsson for his 19th goal of the season.
The Ducks took a 2-1 lead at 8:45 of the third period.
The Wild were buzzing and seemingly on the verge of the go-ahead goal, when Middleton – who returned from a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury – was caught out of position near the boards and let the Ducks get behind him for a 2-on-1.
Mason MacTavish made Wild defenseman Jon Merrill commit to covering him in the right circle and flicked a perfect pass across the slot to Colangelo for the back-hander to beat Gustavsson for his 10th goal of the season.
That set the stage for the dramatic finish for the Wild, who have won 18 of their past 19 against the Ducks.
After some some no-shows down the stretch while they tried to patch together an offense with superstar Kirill Kaprizov and their first-line center Eriksson Ek out with injuries (both returned April 9), the Wild did enough to get in. They’re 5-5-2 in their last 12 games with one win in regulation.
UP NEXT
The Ducks close the regular season on Wednesday at 4 p.m. PT at Winnipeg.
