Danila Yurov scores 2 goals, Quinn Hughes has 4 assists as surging Wild beat Ducks 5-2

Minnesota is 22-4-4 in its last 30 games, and 8-1-2 since acquiring Hughes, the 2024 Norris Trophy winner, in a blockbuster with Vancouver on Dec. 12.

Beckett Sennecke and Troy Terry scored for Anaheim, which has lost five straight and nine of 11. Lukas Dostal had 29 saves, including 17 in the second period.

Yurov put the game out of reach when he redirected Hughes' shot past Dostal for a 4-1 lead 3:21 into the third. Sturm’s shot from the left circle made it 5-1 with 4:58 left.

Dostal made eight saves during a pair of penalty kills in the first seven minutes of the second, but he caught an unlucky break when the Wild scored on a double-deflection to take a 2-0 lead at the 8:10 mark.

Hughes, one of eight Minnesota players named to Winter Olympic teams Friday, sent a shot from the blue line that hit Trenin’s stick and Yurov's right skate before trickling into the net.

Anaheim grabbed some momentum when Mason McTavish’s faceoff swipe from the left circle landed on the stick of Sennecke, whose snap shot beat Gustavsson stick-side to cut the lead to 2-1. Sennecke leads NHL rookies with 13 goals.

But Minnesota pushed it to 3-1 with 5:15 left in the second when Trenin took a pass from Hughes in the right circle and rifled a shot past Dostal.

Minnesota took advantage of Alex Killorn's tripping penalty, needing only 9 seconds to score on the power play for a 1-0 lead 5:39 into the first. Dostal blocked Hughes' slap shot from the point, but Kaprizov banged a shot past Dostal after a scramble in front of the net for his 24th goal.

Up next

Ducks: At Washington on Monday night.

Wild: At Los Angeles on Saturday night.

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/NHL