Wild 3, Ducks 0.

Andrew Brunette was given room to skate on a 5-on-4 power play and took advantage of his second-chance attempt to make it 1-0.

Mikko Koivu was left unguarded on the doorstep to Jonas Hiller's left, then got a great pass to make it 2-0. With just under 44 seconds to play, Pierre-Marc Bouchard's empty-netter sealed the deal.

To the Ducks' credit, their third-period effort was among their best this season - somewhat reminiscent of their most recent loss in San Jose - but not enough. When Backstrom denied Chris Kunitz on a 1-on-0 short-handed breakaway attempt with about 9 minutes to play in the third, you had the feeling the remainder of the game was a mere formality.

Game summary here; even summary here; quotes to follow.

Randy Carlyle:

Minnesota is still a pretty tough place to play? "Every building is tough to play on. They play a style of game that you know you've got to be real tight through the neutral ice. And you have got to play a more of a grinding game then we were able to play tonight. Our execution was really what I would say off. We just couldn't seem to do anything with the puck, and we got frustrated. I don't think we got involved in the game until the third period."

Is that a product of falling behind like we talked about this morning against this team? "No, we just didn't seem to have any ability to execute in the first two periods. We didn't get upset, or we didn't seem to get mad at ourselves, or we didn't get engaged in the game emotionally. And then we got frustrated, and I don't know what it was from a standpoint of coaching. We are going to have to travel in and skate, like we didn't skate yesterday. We are going to have to start considering doing that on these travel days, because we can't afford a performance like we had tonight."

Scott Niedermayer

Do you get frustrated trying to come back against them? "You don't want to, that doesn't help your game. You want to keep doing the things you think are going to create chances for yourselves, and I don't know, we are obviously disappointed with the effort overall tonight. It was not as good as it needs to be this time of year. We need to bounce back tomorrow and play a lot better."

Coach said you had a little bit more spark in the third period. Did it feel different, feel better? "Yeah, but it still doesn't win you a game. It's not really worth anything, and like I said we play again tomorrow night, and points right now are huge. It is quite a race."

This situation, is it good to have a game tomorrow night? "I think so. We need to get right back to maybe doing some of the things we did in the third, some of the things we did in prior games leading up to this one. That's the way we have to play to have success. Tonight we didn't do it all the whole game."

Jacques Lemaire:

Right off the bat you guys initiated the play tonight. "Ya we really started well. I thought we were skating better than they were, and we are fortunate to get a goal and go from there. Right after the goal you could see the confidence. We had a little moment in the third, maybe five to seven minutes. I don't know I guess we wanted to check. With them you know it's a matter of the battles to use all your energy in battles that's what it is. You use your energy when there's a battle. You win the battle then you can bring the puck out. At times you can see that."

You talked about being a different team when you have the lead. "Pretty much, confidence. You start well, you get some chances, you get a goal, and then you keep rolling. If you don't start well then they get a goal it's the opposite. If you start well and they don't get a goal, but you play good you are going to play hard the whole game. To me it's a matter of having a good start."

Is this a continuation of what you were talking about other than that spurt of five to seven minutes? "You look at our defense they really played well. You look at our forwards they were really around the puck. They made plays, which was really good for me."

Mikko Koivu

Pretty nice pass from Antti (Antti Miettinen). "Yup it was nice. I wasn't sure it was coming through or not with the "D" there between, but like you said it was a nice play."

It seemed like it was a crisp game. You seemed to have control from the start, but they came at you a little bit in that third period. "It's always like that when a team is down. They have nothing to lose. They try to create some offense so they could get some chances. That's the key, we have to be strong, and we did a good job at that tonight."

Jacques was talking about that this morning since the All-Star break it felt like this team has turned a corner, and you are starting to play as a team, and it's just a totally different feel around here. "It's good to hear good things from you guys once in awhile. We never hear this, but I guess when we are winning it is easy to feel that way. Like we've been talking I think it's more important the way we play. You know you are going to lose some games, and you can't win them all. It's more important that we can keep the way we are playing, and every guy shows up every night. That's what we talked about after the break. Whether you have a good game or bad game you have to be ready for the next one."