Ducks Get Second Chance To End Series With Wild
(Sports Network) - The Anaheim Ducks will get another shot at advancing in the postseason tonight, when they welcome the Minnesota Wild to the Honda Center for Game 5 of the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals.The second-seeded Ducks had a chance to complete a four-game sweep in Minnesota on Tuesday, but the Wild notched a 4-1 victory to slice Anaheim's series lead to three games to one. Brian Rolston posted a goal and an assist and Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves as Minnesota staved off elimination with a 4-1 win over Anaheim at Xcel Energy Center. Pavol Demitra had two assists for the Wild, which won their first postseason contest since May 8, 2003 against Vancouver. In 2003, Minnesota beat both Colorado and Vancouver after trailing in the series 3-1, but was then swept out of the playoffs in the conference finals against Anaheim. Also on Tuesday, Pierre-Marc Bouchard picked up his first career playoff goal, while Marian Gaborik and Mark Parrish also tallied for the seventh-seeded Wild. Chris Pronger had the lone goal on Tuesday for the Ducks, which had their seven-game playoff win streak over Minnesota snapped. Ilya Bryzgalov gave up four goals on 36 shots in the start, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped all four shots he faced in just over nine minutes of action in the third period. Giguere's relief appearance was his first time in net since March 31. The Ducks No. 1 goaltender had missed the last two games of the regular season while tending to medical issues surrounding his newborn son. Giguere, who played in 56 games this season for Anaheim, was also available as a backup in the first three tests of this series. He may get his first start in the set tonight. An incident in the last game of this series will result in two players missing this evening's matchup. Anaheim forward Brad May received a three-game suspension from the league for decking Wild defenseman Kim Johnsson with a punch with less than two minutes remaining in Game 4. May drew a match penalty for intent-to-injure and a game misconduct for his actions. Johnsson will not play in tonight's game, as he remained in Minnesota to undergo tests. Game 4 was the first meeting between the Ducks and Wild this year, including four matchups in the regular season, that was decided by more than one goal. Anaheim went 2-1-1 in the series during the regular season. The Ducks went 26-6-9 as the host this season and with the 2-0 mark at home in this set, Anaheim has taken 10 if its last 13 tilts at the Honda Center. Minnesota struggled to a 19-19-3 mark on the road during the regular season. If the Wild are able to escape elimination again tonight, the series will return to St. Paul for Saturday's Game 6.
Copyright 2007 Courtesy of The Sports Network.