As Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said after Anaheim's 3-2 win tonight at the Honda Center, the Wild "vastly outplayed" the Ducks in the final two periods "but we just hung on."
Unfortunately for Minnesota, it spotted the Ducks, who are off to their best start in club history (15-3-1), a 3-0 lead. It wasn't like the game here Feb. 1 when the Wild was literally pinned in its zone for pretty much 55 minutes.
Tonight, the Wild paid for not being crisp with the puck in the first period. Turnovers, being caught in between, and Ryan Getzlaf and Teemu Selanne gave Anaheim a 2-0 lead.
But the Wild dominated the second. Jonas Hiller kept the Wild, 6-3-1 in its past 10, at bay despite some bigtime chances. Then a puck deflected off Ryan Suter's skate and into the crease under Darcy Kuemper, and Matt Beleskey shuffleboarded (made-up verb) it home for the eventual winner.
Kyle Brodziak scored 29 seconds into the third and Devin Setoguchi followed, but the Wild could never get the equalizer despite a late power play against a team that's won eight in a row at home.
The Wild controlled the last 10 minutes of the game after assistant coach Rick Wilson shuffled the D pairs, some of which weren't sharp -- like for a rarity, Suter-Jonas Brodin. Jared Spurgeon, who had a strong game and was the only plus Wild player in 27:47 of ice time, played with Suter and Brodin with Nate Prosser, and momentum came.
No momentum came from a late power play. Brodziak was on the No. 1 unit, and that stemmed from the change in Phoenix where they threw him out there and Spurgeon scored the eventual winner. They're doing it for the net-front presence, but I still would like to see more flash on the power play, maybe more of a shooter, like I don't know, AHL power-play stud Jason Zucker!
Judging from the tweets, fans are clamoring, too. I understand that Yeo is limiting his ice time at 5-on-5. All coaches do this with rookies who may not be playing the system to a T. But I think it's time the kid gets some power-play time. Yeo said last week he was hesitant because the veterans deserve first shot. But the power play ranks 25th in the NHL and the Wild doesn't score enough 5-on-5 to continually be wasting must-score power plays.
