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Ducks visit Wild aiming for third straight victory

Feb 4, 2009 - 11:18 AM Anaheim (26-22-5) at Minnesota (25-21-3), 8:00 p.m. EST

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- As a goaltender controversy quietly permeates through the locker room, the Anaheim Ducks continue to generate success.

The Ducks seek their third straight victory when they visit the Minnesota Wild in a battle of Western Conference foes on Wednesday.

Fighting for playoff position, the Ducks received solid efforts from Chris Kunitz and Corey Perry, who each netted a power-play goal in the third period of Monday's 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

Defenseman Chris Pronger also tallied and Jonas Hiller made 21 saves for the Ducks, who have won three of their last four.

Hiller has started four straight games in place of the ineffective Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who started for the West in the All-Star Game despite owning a 12-12-4 record and 3.08 goals-against average.

While Giguere has lost three straight contests, Hiller has thrived by surrendering three goals or less in each of his last seven appearances.

Perry has scored six goals in his last seven games and 13 points in his last 11.

Minnesota is coming off a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, improving to 3-5-2 in its last 10 one-goal games.

In that contest, Marc-Andre Bergeron finished with two goals and an assist and Pierre-Marc Bouchard notched three assists for Minnesota, which improved to 2-1-0 in its last three games.

Mikko Koivu and Eric Belanger also scored and Niklas Backstrom turned aside 37 shots one night after being pulled in a 3-1 setback to the Edmonton Oilers.