Big second period sends Wild soaring past Ducks

Minnesota scored three unanswered second-period goals and Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves as the Wild blanked the host Anaheim Ducks 4-0 on Tuesday.

Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist while Jon Merrill, Kirill Kaprizov and Jacob Lucchini also scored for Minnesota. Gustavsson earned his third shutout of the season as the Wild improved to 6-0-2 over the past eight games.

Minnesota (34-27-8, 76 points) won the season series against Anaheim (23-43-3, 49 points), taking two of three meetings.

The Wild improved to 15-1-0 in their past 16 matchups against Anaheim.

Goaltender John Gibson made 28 saves for Anaheim, which has lost seven straight games -- the longest active skid in the NHL -- and has been outscored 35-7 in that stretch.

Tuesday was the ninth time this season the Ducks were shut out.

Minnesota produced two goals in the first two minutes of the second period to open the scoring.

Hartman jammed in the rebound off Marcus Foligno's shot 35 seconds into the period for his 18th of the season.

Merrill doubled the lead, beating Gibson with a shot off the post and in from the top of the left faceoff circle for his fourth of the season at 1:56 of the middle frame. With an assist on the goal, Marat Khusnutdinov picked up his first career NHL point in his third game.

Kaprizov gave the Wild a 3-0 lead, poking a loose puck past Gibson on a power play for his 36th of the season at 11:50 of the second. Kaprizov has goals in five straight games (six total) and points in eight straight (10 goals, four assists).

Lucchini made it 4-0 at 13:03 of the third period, one-timing an Adam Beckman pass past Gibson for his second of the season.

Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin left the game in the third period after falling awkwardly, and he did not return to action.