The Anaheim Ducks have gotten some life in the wings as they rode Ryan Miller, who made 31 saves in a 4-0 win over the Minnesota Wild in St Paul.
The Wild are fading fast with a five-game losing streak and the Ducks are 3-1-0 under Bob Murray as head coach.
Corey Perry hscored his second of the season in St Paul – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“I didn’t think we paid the price to win,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Simple as that. You got to get to the front of the net. You got to get the dirty goals.”
It was Miller’s first shutout of the season.
“The hockey gods put me out for 10 weeks, so this is a little bit of retribution, I guess,” said Miller, who got his 375th NHL win to set the record for a U.S.-born goalie in a 5-2 victory against the Washington Capitals on Sunday, his first game since injuring his knee Dec. 9 against the New Jersey Devils. “I knew we’d come around at some point. … When a team’s skating hard, things are going to happen.”
Jakob Silfverberg, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler scored for the Ducks.
“I thought our line (with Nick Ritchie and Carter Rowney) the last couple games had been dangerous. Just no puck luck, even early on,” Kesler said. “We hit a post and we had some good looks in front. We just couldn’t put it in the back of the net. Finally, our line got one.”
Hampus Lindholm added an empty net goal to seal the win.
“We knew at the end of this game we were either going to be seven points out or three points out (of a wild card spot),” Kesler said. “I thought we did a good job and stuck together, even early in the first when we took two penalties back to back. I thought our [penalty kill] did a tremendous job. [Miller] did a great job too. Then we got some puck luck there at the end.”
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Wild highlights]
Devan Dubnyk made 20 saves in the loss.
“I still believe in our group. We’re just snakebitten,” the Wild ‘sRyan Suter said after the dismal loss. “Guys are working, and when you’re winning, you might not have to work as hard and things come easier. And now that we can’t win, everything’s just a lot different. Guys are working probably a lot harder than when we were winning. We’re just not scoring goals.”
The Wild lead the Arizona Coyotes by one point; Arizona beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 Tuesday night.
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