Ducks denied in St Paul

In St Paul, Nico Smith’s goal at 7:01 of the third period gave the Minnesota Wild a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish in a win over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

“Yeah, it was a fluky one, but they don’t ask how, right?” said Wild defenseman Ryan Suter of Sturm’s goal.

Cam Talbot made 28 saves in the win, the Wild’s 10th straight home win.

“It was not a pretty game,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “I’ve seen some not-so-pretty games in this League, and that one wasn’t and it’s a lot to do with what we did and how we played. You never want to obviously complain about two points … but there’s a lot of things that we can do better. A lot of things we can simplify within our game and get back to doing well what we do and play with that energy and that pace. But best part is we did get two points and we can get after a game tomorrow night.”

Derek Grant and Max Comtois were the Ducks’ scorers.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s hard. It’s extremely tough [in these losses],” Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins said. “We’ve got all of our guys tonight, basically to a man, work their tails off. They were very in sync in a lot of the game. I have very little issues with our play. I thought we played hard, I thought we played smart. We got a bad bounce that ends up in our net.”

Jared Spurgeon struck for two goals for Minnesota.

“We didn’t play our best, but the good thing is we know that,” Spurgeon said. “We’re not sitting here saying we played a great game. We have a big test tomorrow (against the St. Louis Blues) and we have to get ready for that one.”

The Wild improved to 20-10-1.

“I really didn’t have to do much. [Suter] just banked them off my stick and they went in,” Spurgeon said. “But as a group, I think every night, there’s going to be someone different [scoring].”

Ryan Miller made 23 saves in the loss.

“It’s no different than everybody in life. I had five bad days at the office and it’s a little reset, and I was ready to go tonight,” Comtois said. “Life is about character and how you bounce back when you’ve got less good times and I think I did a pretty good job tonight and I just have to keep going for the rest of the year.”