In St Paul, Nick Bjugstad snapped a 1-1 tie with the Anaheim Ducks on Monday with a goal early in the third period to send the Minnesota Wild to a 2-1 win.
“They fought their way through a game that we’re fortunate to get two points in,” Minnesota head coach Dean Evason said. “We got better and better as the game went on. We thought our third period was real good. Our energy was good in the third period. We put a lot of pressure on them, played a lot in their zone.”
Cam Talbot made 24 saves to get the win for the Wild.
Troy Terry staked the Ducks to an early 1-0 lead before Anaheim surrendered one more advantage on the season.
“It’s hard not to give Talbot credit,” Terry said. “He played a really good game. I don’t know, I thought we created a lot. There’s a lot to hang our heads on this year that we need to learn from. I don’t necessarily think that game was one of them. I think we can learn from it.”
Ryan Suter also scored for the Wild, his first strike of the season.
“I think we’re going through a bit of a slump with energy, but we’re finding ways to win, which is important,” Suter said. “Every game can’t be [where] you score six goals and everybody is smiling. Every once in a while, you’ve got to grind them out like we did tonight.”
The Wild improved to 19-10-1.
“Big goal by [Suter],” Bjugstad said. “That was a great all-around play on the power play. Obviously we’ve had our chances, [but] to come through with a goal like that after being down one, that’s game-changing.”
Ryan Miller made 21 saves in the loss.
“At the end of the day, maybe it comes down to us finishing one of our chances,” said the Ducks’ Josh Manson said. “I felt we had a lot of good chances tonight around their net that just didn’t find their way in.
“Overall, I think we played a really solid game tonight to build off of. I think it’s just frustrating because when you play bad games, you expect to lose. But when you play the good games, you feel like you played well, you expect to win. …I think we’ve got to stay positive after this one. There’s some games you want to learn from and maybe you hang your head a little bit, but this is one I think we have to stay up and go forward to the next one.”
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