After a week of iffy trades and weeks-long losing skid, the Anaheim Ducks arrived in St Paul Thursday night and hung a three-spot on the Minnesota Wild in the opening period and skated off with a 3-0 win.
The win snapped a 12-game skid that was getting uglier by the minute.
“It’s relief for everybody, more so for our players because when you go through these situations and the amount of frustration, the amount of passion that they play with and not get rewarded for such a long period of time, and then the nervousness goes in when you have a 3-0 lead, are you going to allow the opposition back in it,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said with relief. “All those things are playing on their minds. It’s a huge relief and you hope you can turn the corner on something and start to play a consistent brand of hockey that gives us a chance to win.”
Anaheim was 0-8-4 on the schneid
John Gibson made 37 saves in getting shutout, the second of the season for him.
“It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure,” Gibson said. “It’s nice. I think tonight we all just had enough of losing and we came out and played the way we had to play and do what we had to do.”
The Ducks scored twice in 11 seconds on goals from Adam Henrique and Rickard Rakell in the first.
Brian Gibbons added a goal for the final scoring of the game.
The Wild dropped to 23-21-3.
“We’re not scoring enough. At the end of the day that’s what it comes down to,” Zach Parise said. “We’re just not scoring enough goals. That’s been tough for us this year.”
This was the fourth time the Wild have been shutout this season.
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Wild highlights]
Alex Stalock was given the hook after the third goal; he made just five saves,
Devan Dubnyk made 15 saves the rest of the way but the lack of offense meant little for his effort.
“Over the last three or four games we’re playing teams that are bottom in the League, and a team coming in on a 12-game losing streak,” Parise said. “We get one shootout win out of it (3-2 against Los Angeles Kings). It’s just not good enough.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.