Wild frustrates Ducks all night, hands Anaheim its fourth shutout in seven games

Fans have been starving for a 60-minute effort, and so has Wild coach Mike Yeo.

Everybody got it Saturday night when the Wild took a 3-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks to take the first of back-to-back games. The Wild plays in Winnipeg on Sunday at 5 p.m.

Obviously, read the final game story on startribune.com/wild for all the details and quotes, but the Wild took ample advantage of a frustrated opponent tonight. It's amazing, but the Ducks have scored six times in seven games and have been shut out four times. That was the amount they were shut out last year in 82 games.

"I think it mounts," coach Bruce Boudreau said of the frustration. "Human nature would dictate that it would. And when you have chances and you don't score it's even magnified more. You're holding the stick so tight and you can't make plays. You see pucks bouncing off our guys sticks, you see them wanting to make the perfect play for a goal. When things go bad you just have to shoot everything at the net and go to the net and hope one bounces off your butt or something."

Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler have been donuts on their goal total, and tonight Getzlaf lost his cool with a couple undisciplined penalties – two of five in a row by the Ducks.

You do have to wonder how long this continues. Boudreau's seat has got to be scalding, especially with Paul MacLean, the NHL's 2013 Coach of the Year, on the bench next to him.

The Ducks were busy showing their frustration despite being completely in the game in the second period in spite of the Wild controlling play.

Carter's no dummy. The Wild's up 1-0, outshooting the Ducks "20-something to 6," as he said. Carter's not about to give the Ducks a spark by fighting Maroon even though he was "doing his job," Carter said.

"That frustrated them, too," Carter said.

So with the refs watching Maroon all shift, he barreled over Chris Porter for the Wild's fifth power play. The Wild's first power play of the game way back in the first period, the No. 1 unit spent the entire two minutes in the zone. It moved the puck terrifically but registered one shot on goal because the Ducks blocked five. The next three were blanked, and on this one, Thomas Vanek scored three seconds after it was over.

Nino Niederreiter brushed off a hard check behind the net, went to the front of the net and screened Frederik Andersen.

"I had a little time there and I was looking for something, just doing something I guess," Vanek, standing 46 feet out in the right circle, said. "And then I noticed that Nino had good body position in the front and I saw a little opening above his glove. I just went for it and it worked out perfectly."

Vanek's goals this season, every single one of them was huge. This one was gigantic because the Wild's got a 1-0 lead, up 22-6 on shots and 0 for 5 on power plays. Considering the Ducks had won six straight one-goal games here, a bad feeling could have crept in if the Wild didn't make it 2-0.

And Yeo did start to sense it before Vanek's tally.

Then, to add insult to injury with Maroon, the Wild got the penalty it was due and scored shorthanded. Jared Spurgeon (four assists his past two games) rimmed the puck around the glass, Justin Fontaine got it for a 2-on-1 and fed Carter for his third career shortie.

Just a great game by Carter and a great game by the fourth line after Yeo talked em up pregame. In fact, if Kurtis Gabriel was going to make his NHL debut (he was recalled to maybe add some ruggedness in Winnipeg) in Winnipeg, that may be on hold now. Yeo tried to make it sound afterward that the Wild needed to bring up an extra forward because he doesn't like not having one on the road and especially in a second of a back-to-back situation even though the Wild just had a three-game trip (and back-to-back) without an extra forward.

No, Gabriel was picked in this case because it's hard-nosed Winnipeg and because of the preseason trash-talking after the 8-1 drubbing.

Vanek said of the fourth line, "Our fourth line, they're not the biggest, they're not the …, well, they're tough. They're not a typical fourth line. But they're fast, they play hard, they play in a straight line and they get under good players' skin. Carts got under Getzlaf's skin a couple times, and we got power play's off of it."

Even though they have no points as a line, Yeo said before the game that he loves the way they're not getting scored on, the way they're penalty killing and the way they're drawing penalties. Three recently have led to goals. Tonight was kinda sorta the fourth because Vanek's goal came three seconds after Maroon got out of the box, so obviously he wasn't back in the play.

What else?

Matt Dumba scored his third career winner and the first goal by a Wild D this season. Devan Dubnyk made 15 saves for his 15th shutout. He called it a "team one, for sure."

One concern? He looked hurt to me in the second period after he slid over on one play. I asked him after and he said he heard his knee "pop." He said he's never had a knee injury before and doesn't know what one feels like, but other than being a "little sore," it's strong and he thinks there are no issues. He said as a kid his knee used to lock and would pop like this, so he thinks this was maybe that.

All in all, good win.

"Guys played great," Dubnyk said. "A lot of good things. We came out hard tonight. It something's where we really haven't been happy with our starts. Certainly nothing wrong with that tonight. We were great."