ANAHEIM — Call up Bootsy Collins and resurrect Sly Stone, because the Ducks are officially in a deep funk.
They lost to the Minnesota Wild, 5-2, on Friday night at Honda Center, their ninth defeat in their past 11 games and fifth consecutive loss.
Of their seven straight matches in Southern California, six at home, they managed just one win and three of a possible 14 points.
Beckett Sennecke and Troy Terry scored goals for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál came up with 29 saves.
Marquee trade acquisition Quinn Hughes assisted on two goals by Danila Yurov and two more by Kirill Kaprizov and Yakov Trenin, who also had an assist for Minnesota, which extended its points streak to five games. Nico Sturm slathered on a goal and Joel Eriksson Ek added two assists. Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves.
It was Hughes’ fourth career four-assist game and a single-game franchise record for a Wild defenseman. It was his second such outburst this season after he set up four goals on Nov. 16 while still a member of the Vancouver Canucks.
Once in a position to prove their mettle among the top teams in the Western Conference, the Ducks dropped to 1-4-0 against the Central Division’s big three of Minnesota, Colorado and Dallas. Friday marked their second loss to the Wild this season following a 2-0 blanking on Nov. 15. Once leading the Pacific Division, the Ducks’ playoff standing has grown murkier (third place and dropping).
“They’re smart, they’re experienced and they have a lot of play with the puck. That’s what we wanna get to, but it looked like we distanced ourselves [from it] after a game like tonight,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said.
The Ducks came out at full steam, sustaining pressure and building an early 4-1 shot advantage. But a tripping minor to Alex Killorn, who left the match not long afterward when he was struck in the face with a puck, put the Wild on the power play.
That swung the door wide open for Kaprizov. Hughes’ heave from the point generated a big rebound that eluded both Jackson LaCombe and Jacob Trouba, instead finding Kaprizov for a firm follow-up shot that became his team-leading 24th goal of 2025-26.
The Ducks have given up the game’s first goal in eight of their past 10 games and lost all eight, while winning both times when they struck first.
“We’re looking at solutions and we’re trying different things. But we’re playing catch-up hockey a lot, too, which is not conducive to solidifying where we need to get to,” Quenneville said.
They mounted numerous promising attacks early Friday, a two-on-one rush (save), a three-on-one break (no shot off a bobbled puck) and a gorgeous give-and-go in tight (fanned on a shot attempt) among them. Later in the tilt, they had a three-on-one chance with the only defender back, Hughes, having no stick, but they failed to capitalize.
The Wild extended their lead 8:10 into the middle frame. Another Hughes slap shot created the goal, and this one became a magic bullet. First it was tipped in the high slot by Trenin and then it banked home off Yurov’s skate.
There was an exchange of goals with the Ducks getting on the board at 13:46 and Minnesota taking the tally right back 59 seconds later.
First, Sennecke got the puck of an offensive-zone draw and immediately cut to the middle, nestling a shot inside the near post for his 13th goal to lead all rookies.
Then, the deficit was right back at two after Mason McTavish, who assisted on the Ducks’ goal, made an unforced error at center ice that gave the Wild the puck. They moved ahead on a tempered rush that saw Trenin throw one diagonal seam pass to the trailing Hughes and then Hughes make another back to Trenin for a one-timer from the right faceoff dot.
“It was nice to get a little cushion there. They scored, so the crowd could have gotten into it and their team could have gotten momentum,” Hughes said.
With 4:58 to play, Sturm’s knuckling shot snuck between the pad and blocker of Dostál to make it 5-1 off a goal by the German Olympian to be.
With 2:33 remaining, Terry swooped in to score from in tight, an academic goal for his 13th of the season, with both Ducks goals coming directly off faceoff wins.
“We can’t be satisfied. We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to get hungrier and we’ve got to find a way to win more games to finally get in the playoffs,” Ducks captain Radko Gudas said.