In a last, desperate push to make the playoffs, the Wild are taking care of their own business, and it finally appears to be paying dividends.

Zach Bogosian and Kirill Kaprizov scored goals, and Marc-Andre Fleury earned his 75th career shutout as the Wild beat the Anaheim Ducks, 2-0, on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild jumped idle St. Louis for ninth place in the Western Conference, and within four points behind Vegas, pending their 8 p.m. puck drop in Calgary, and Los Angeles for the Western Conference’s two wild card playoff spots. Starting next week, Minnesota plays the Kings and Golden Knights twice more among their final 15 regular-season games.

Fleury, who has started the past three Wild games, made 17 saves and improved to 9-2-0 in his past 13 games, 11 of them starts, since Jan. 13.

With his second shutout of the season, Fleury is one shy of tying Tony Esposito for 10th on the NHL’s career list. Already this season, Fleury has become the fourth NHL goalie to play 1,000 games and passed Martin Brodeur for second in career wins, which is now 560.

It was a tight defensive effort against the Ducks, who didn’t get their 11th shot on goal until 2:16 into the third period. They briefly appeared to pull within a goal early in the third period, but the Wild challenged and it was waived off for offsides.

The Ducks pulled goaltender Lukas Dostal with 2:31 remaining but Minnesota was active in its end, clearing the puck a few times and getting line changes as the Wild preserved the shutout.

Minnesota completed a three-game homestand against Anaheim, Arizona and Nashville 3-0 and has improved to 12-4-2 since returning from the all-star break on Feb. 7. In their last two games before the break, and closer to a playoff spot then held by the Predators, the Wild failed to earn a point against Nashville and Anaheim.

Day to day

The Wild were without Joel Eriksson Ek on Thursday after he left Tuesday’s 4-1 victory over Arizona early with a lower body injury, and it was unclear whether he would travel with the Wild for Saturday’s game at St. Louis.

Still, the Wild have to feel good about their top center’s status. “I would call it day to day right now,” coach John Hynes told reporters after Thursday’s morning skate.

That prognosis hasn’t always been followed by a quick return, but the Wild do expect Eriksson Ek — who leads the team with a plus-16, and is second in goals (29) and points (60) — back for most of the team’s last 15 regular-season games.

Briefly

Center Marat Khusnutdinov made his NHL debut on Thursday. Playing center on the third line with Marcus Foligno and Freddie Gaudreau, the young Russian who just finished his fourth KHL season, played 11:54. He didn’t register a shot but won 6 of 9 faceoffs. … Foligno, who has been playing with a nagging lower body injury, missed his second straight morning skate on Thursday — and it will probably be that way for the rest of the season. “I would think so,” Hynes said. “Particularly on morning skates, that he will not skate and just be ready for the games.”

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