Game 2: Ducks continue postseason mastery of Wild
(AP) Taking the first two games on their home ice, the Anaheim Ducks know they'll face a stiffer challenge as their playoff series against the Wild shifts to Minnesota.
"We needed to take advantage on home ice and we did that," Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin said Friday night after scoring twice in the Ducks' 3-2 victory.
"Now we've got to go back there and keep playing our game. Their fans are good, and that's a great place to play. They're a good defensive team, and we knew going in the games were going to be close."
Beauchemin scored on a pair of power plays and Ilya Bryzgalov made 30 saves to help the Ducks to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference series. Games 3 and 4 are in St. Paul on Sunday and Tuesday.
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The teams split four regular-season games, each winning twice at home.
Beauchemin scored in the first and second periods, and Ryan Getzlaf added a short-handed goal later in the second period. Anaheim held on after Mikko Koivu pulled the Wild within 3-2 on his goal with 4:56 remaining.
"It felt good to make the power play work. I one-timed both of them," said Beauchemin, a defenseman who also had two goals in a playoff game last year.
Marian Gaborik had a second-period goal for Minnesota.
The Wild struggled again on the power play, going 0-for-6 after failing to convert on four power plays in the 2-1 opening loss. Then there was the Ducks' short-handed goal.
"They got two power plays and a shorty. That was the difference in the game," the Wild's Brian Rolston said. "Obviously, we've got to get the power play going, and there is no better way to get it going than at home."
Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said: "I thought we played a great game. It was just getting the power play to go a little better and staying out of the box. The rest of the game was fine."
Beauchemin beat Niklas Backstrom with a slap shot late in the second period to put Anaheim up 2-1. Getzlaf made a cross-ice pass to Beauchemin from the top of the right circle, and Beauchemin's shot sailed into the upper right corner of the net.
Getzlaf scored 2:26 later, his first short-handed goal ever in the playoffs.
"I was excited," he said. "I think I wasted more energy on the celebration than on the actual goal."
Koivu scored from the top of the crease, managing to get off the shot as he was falling down, and the puck got past Bryzgalov on the glove side.
On his goal, Getzlaf took a pass from Travis Moen along the left boards, feinted inside against Minnesota defenseman Martin Skoula, cut outside and zipped around him. The Ducks' center then flipped the puck over Backstrom's stick.
Backstrom faced 25 shots.
Bryzgalov, starting in place of Jean-Sebastien Giguere again, had 24 saves in the Ducks' 2-1 victory in Game 1 victory on Wednesday night. He also started the final three games of the regular season while Giguere remained home to be with his wife and newborn son, who had a medical problem.
The Gigueres were concerned that their son, born April 4, might be sightless. But while he has no vision in his right eye, a specialist determined earlier this week that he does have vision in his left eye.
Gaborik scored at 3:33 of the second period to draw the Wild even 1-1.
Beauchemin scored midway through the opening period, with his slap shot from the blue line skidding between Backstrom's pads. Notes: Anaheim F Dustin Penner, who had the deciding goal late in Game 1, left the second game during the third period because of a muscle strain and did not return. ... The Ducks have beaten the Wild six in a row in the postseason including Anaheim's sweep in the 2003 conference finals. ... Teemu Selanne assisted on Beauchemin's second goal for his 30th postseason point for the Ducks, bettering Paul Kariya's club record of 29. ... Beauchemin has logged two of only three two-goal games by a Ducks defenseman in the playoffs; the other was by J.J. Daigneault in 1997.
