Deep into their 80th game in a season riddled with injuries and setbacks A.J. Derby Jersey , the Anaheim Ducks still weren’t certain they were heading back to the playoffs.

So the Ducks dug down deep and came out with the ticket to the Stanley Cup tournament. And now that they’re in, their hard-earned resilience could be a nightmare for anybody in their path.

Ondrej Kase scored the tiebreaking goal on a rebound with 3:56 to play, and the Ducks clinched their sixth consecutive postseason berth with a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.

Kase secured his first 20-goal season by jumping on a long rebound of Josh Manson’s shot, and Andrew Cogliano added an empty-net goal. Nick Ritchie also scored, while Manson and Francois Beauchemin had two assists apiece as the Ducks officially extended the NHL’s second-longest streak of consecutive postseason berths – a streak they share with Minnesota.

”It’s very satisfying,” goalie Ryan Miller said. ”The guys certainly turned a corner. We were grinding from the start.”

Miller made 26 saves in his first start since March 9 for the Ducks, who have won eight of 10 in their usual late-season surge.

Anaheim also leapfrogged archrival Los Angeles into third place in the Pacific Division, leading by one point with two games to play for both clubs.

The Ducks’ streak of five consecutive Pacific Division titles was ended by Vegas this season, but Anaheim’s veteran lineup remains a foreboding matchup for any playoff opponent. The Ducks still have most of the core that reached the Western Conference finals twice in the past three seasons.

”This whole year has been a bit of a struggle,” captain Ryan Getzlaf said. ”With the start we had, and the players we had out of the lineup, it was tough to see the big picture at that point. Our guys did a good job battling throughout the whole year. We accomplished one goal we wanted.”

Matt Dumba scored a power-play goal and Devan Dubnyk stopped 28 shots for the Wild, who took their fifth loss in seven games during what turned out to be a meaningless contest for them.

When the St. Louis Blues’ loss to Chicago ended during the first period in Anaheim, Minnesota was locked into third place in the Central Division Lance Alworth Jersey , ensuring a first-round matchup with Winnipeg or Nashville.

”Both of those teams have had pretty fantastic seasons, and (neither is) really a great option,” Dubnyk said. ”But I think us, as a group, have shown that we can play and beat anybody in the league, including both those teams. I think it will be exciting for us.”

The Blues’ result also clinched a playoff berth for the Kings, and it meant the Ducks would be able to clinch as well. Coach Randy Carlyle’s team didn’t miss the chance, even while playing without several injured regulars – a theme of the Ducks’ entire season.

”You can’t hide the fact that it’s been a different type of year for our hockey club,” Carlyle said. ”But every time people were ready to count them out, they were able to stand up and say, `That’s not happening.”’

Ducks goalie John Gibson sat out with an upper-body injury that doesn’t appear to be serious, and Miller coolly picked up his second straight victory after coming on in relief for Gibson on Sunday.

Both teams were without their top defensemen. Minnesota’s Ryan Suter is done for the year with a broken ankle, while Anaheim’s Cam Fowler missed his first game since Nov. 19 with a shoulder injury that could require six weeks of recovery.

Dumba’s goal in the second period was his second of the season at Honda Center, where he scored the overtime winner for Minnesota on Dec. 8.

Nearly seven minutes later Max Unger Jersey , the Ducks evened it by crowding Dubnyk. With Adam Henrique’s help, Ritchie got credit for his 10th goal of the season.

”They got a fluke goal to tie it up, I thought, but (in) the third period, they definitely outworked us,” Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”It was a great test. We talked about how this is what playoff hockey is going to be like. Maybe it’s a cheap lesson learned.”

NOTES: With Fowler out and Kevin Bieksa still recovering from surgery on his left hand, D Andy Welinski appeared in his fifth career NHL game for Anaheim. Welinski had been down in the AHL since Dec. 19. … Minnesota F Luke Kunin had surgery Tuesday repairing a torn ligament in his left knee. He will need 6-7 months of recovery time. … Boudreau lost at Honda Center for the first time in three visits since the Ducks fired him in 2016 after a first-round exit from the playoffs. … Mike Trout attended the game with his family after playing in the Angels’ 13-inning victory over Cleveland earlier in the day across Katella Avenue.

UP NEXT

Wild: At the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.

Ducks: Host the Dallas Stars on Friday.

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NEW YORK — A lineup shakeup produced the desired results Monday night for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately for the New York Mets, rookie manager Mickey Callaway already unsuccessfully pulled that out of his bag of tricks.

The Pirates will look to lock up a series win Tuesday over the free-falling Mets Tuesday night, when the two teams play the middle game of a three-game set at Citi Field.

Pirates right-hander Chad Kuhl (5-5, 4.56 ERA) is scheduled to oppose Mets left-hander Steven Matz (3-5, 3.68 ERA).

The Pirates ended a five-game losing streak Monday night, when a rejiggered top of the lineup scored five runs in a 6-4 victory.

The Pirates’ top three batters — Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Josh Harrison — were all occupying those spots for the first time this season. Marte scored three runs and stole two bases, Bell hit a two-run homer and Harrison delivered a sacrifice fly and scored a run.

The six runs were the most the Pirates (37-41) have scored since an 8-6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on June 17. Pittsburgh scored nine runs in the subsequent six games.

“If it’s broken Philip Rivers Jersey , you have to fix it, right?” Bell said Monday night. “Changing things up, giving us all a new view. Marte hasn’t led off in a while. ‘J-Hey’ is hitting third. Changing things up, it might have been the spark that we needed.”

The Mets (31-45) have been looking for a spark for weeks. New York has lost seven straight, 18 of 22 and 20 of 64 since an 11-1 start to fall dangerously close to the bottom of the National League. The only team with a worse record in the Senior Circuit is the Miami Marlins, who rank mere percentage points behind at 32-47.

Shuffling the lineup hasn’t worked for Callaway, who had three players (second-place batter Jose Bautista, cleanup batter Dominic Smith and sixth-place batter Jose Reyes) in unfamiliar spots Monday. Smith was batting cleanup for the first time this year while Bautista and Reyes were occupying their spots for the second and third time, respectively.

Against the New York Yankees on June 9, Callaway batted Amed Rosario leadoff for the first time as a major leaguer and Todd Frazier and Brandon Nimmo second and third, respectively, for the first time this season in a 4-3 loss.

With the Mets seeing no immediate payoff for Callaway’s mixing and matching, he is left to hope the lessons learned from the extended bleak times will yield results down the road.

“As hard as it’s been, we have to understand that this is something that we can benefit from in the long run Deion Sanders Jersey ,” Callaway said Monday afternoon. “No matter how many times you fall, you can learn from it. And I think our guys understand that and we talk about that type (of) stuff all the time.”

Kuhl and Matz will both be looking to bounce back from rough losses last Thursday.

Kuhl allowed eight runs over two innings as the Pirates fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-3. The eight runs were the second-most Kuhl’s allowed as a big leaguer while the two innings pitched marked his second-shortest start.

Matz gave up five runs over 5 2/3 innings in the Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies. The five earned runs were a season-high for Matz, who allowed three runs or fewer in his seven of his previous eight starts.

Kuhl took the defeat in his only previous start against the Mets on May 26, 2017, when he gave up five runs over 4 1/3 innings as the Pirates lost, 8-1.

Matz also lost his lone start against the Pirates on June 7, 2016, when he allowed two runs over five innings as the Mets fell, 3-1.
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