For those desperately searching for signs that the Minnesota Wild are turning a corner, perhaps Saturday’s 2-0 win over Anaheim provided a few.
And for a team that has struggled to find consistent offense in the season’s first six weeks, perhaps getting it done with defense is just the way things will need to be, at least for now.
In stifling the normally high-scoring Ducks, Minnesota got 28 saves from Jesper Wallstedt — one half of what is looking more and more like a true goalie tandem — as the younger of the Wild’s two Swedish goalies improved to 4-0-2 as a starter. It was the second shutout of the season for Wallstedt, and the third of his career.
The Wild got all the offense they would need from Marcus Johansson, and finished things off with a Matt Boldy empty-net goal. With the win, Minnesota is 8-7-4 and back above .500 for the first time in a month.
Minnesota’s power play, which has been among the NHL’s best this season, went 0 for 7.
After the Ducks killed an early Mason McTavish high-sticking penalty, the Anaheim center once again got the blade of his stick up too high, catching Wild rookie forward Danila Yurov near his right eye. Yurov dropped to the ice immediately and was helped down the tunnel by the team’s trainers, while McTavish returned to the penalty box, this time for four minutes.
Anaheim emerged from the double minor unscathed, allowing just two Wild shots. Yurov returned to the game with a little under two minutes left in the scoreless opening period.
Early in the middle frame, Johansson’s productive month continued. After being held off the score sheet in Minnesota’s previous game, snapping a career-best nine-game point streak, his goal off a set-up from Boldy gave Johansson a dozen points in the Wild’s past 11 games.
The Wild were without winger Vladimir Tarasenko for the first time this season, after he was scratched due to a lower-body injury. Liam Ohgren, recalled from Iowa earlier in the day on Saturday, took Tarasenko’s spot on the third line, which began the game with Yurov at center and Vinnie Hinostroza on the other wing.
The Ducks got their second four-minute, high-sticking penalty of the game in the third when Nikita Nesterenko’s follow-through on a check included the shaft of his stick tagging Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt in the face. Hunt left a trail of blood on his way to the locker room but was back on the bench before the power play ended.
Petr Mrazek finished with 29 saves for Anaheim, which will host the Wild on Jan. 2 at the Honda Center and returns to Minnesota to close the regular season on April 14.
The Wild’s five-game homestand continues on Sunday evening when the Vegas Golden Knights make their first visit to Minnesota this season. The game faces off at 5 p.m.
Briefly
Two of the Ducks’ players with Minnesota connections were unavailable on Saturday night. Ryan Poehling, who is from Lakeville and played collegiately at St. Cloud State, missed his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury. Mikael Granlund, who was the Wild’s first round pick (ninth overall) in 2010 and spent his first six NHL seasons in Minnesota, was scratched after suffering a lower-body injury during Anaheim’s loss in Detroit on Thursday.
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