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Harding fills in nicely for Backstrom as Wild beat Ducks

Oct 15, 2007 - 4:41 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- No Niklas Backstrom, no problem for the Minnesota Wild.

Josh Harding recorded a shutout in place of the Jennings Trophy winner and the Wild defeated the Anaheim Ducks, 2-0, on Sunday night.

Brian Rolston and Mark Parrish each scored their first goals of the season in the second period for the Wild, who improved to 5-0-0 and are the only undefeated team in the NHL.

Backstrom, who started the first four games of the season and recorded two shutouts, sat this one out. But Harding, who played seven games last season, filled in more than adequately, stopping 37 shots to record his third career shutout.

"You've got to give a lot of credit to our team, they did a great job in front of the net, and came up with a couple of big goals," Harding said. "The defensemen let me see the puck, and that's all a goalie can ask for."

Harding stopped 14 shots in the first, 19 in the second and four in the third.

The game was a rematch of the 2007 Western Conference quarterfinals, won in five games by Anaheim.

"We're playing as a team, we're getting some key goals when we need them and getting saves," Harding said. "After four wins in a row, we wanted to keep the train rolling and not to let down. We still remember what happened in the playoffs and it's a really good win for this hockey club."

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said he had no qualms about starting Harding.

"They got a lot of chances on the power play and he was there, he was very solid," Lemaire said. "He's been really good, on top of his game in practices. He's been saying that he feels really good and would love to go in and play. That is probably the reason why we put him in."

Harding's best save in the first period was a right leg stop on a rebound from Todd Marchant after a breakaway by Todd Bertuzzi was denied. Bertuzzi left the game shortly thereafter with an injury and did not return.

Minnesota went ahead, 1-0, at 2:04 of the second period when Rolston took a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle and put the puck over the glove of Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Giguere was playing for the first time this season after missing the first six games after undergoing surgery for a sports hernia in August.

"He's got a good shot," Giguere said of Rolston. "It was a 2-on-1 (and) I was a little preoccupied with the guy who was coming backdoor. It's a good shot."

"We just did a great job coming out of our end," Rolston said. "I think their (defense) got caught down, and we got a 2-on-1 break. I just basically slapped it from the top of the circle, glove side high. I was just trying to go high somewhere and luckily it went in."

Parrish made it 2-0 at 11:50, beating Giguere on the stick side. Mikko Koivu passed to Branko Radivojevic in the right circle, who made a nice crossing pass to Parrish in front for the goal.

"It's nice being on the tail end of those kinds of plays," Parrish said. "Mikko did a great job of drawing both defensemen to him coming through the neutral zone right up to the blueline, and passed it over to Branko. Branko made a pretty pass, right underneath the (defenseman's) stick to me. I had the easy part, just burying it from a couple of feet out. It was a great play by my linemen." Meanwhile, Giguere stopped 23 shots for the Ducks, who were 0-for-8 with a man-advantage.

"They don't like us, that's for sure," Giguere said of Minnesota.

"We play a passionate type of hockey, we're very aggressive and we'll take the body. Sometimes we can rub them the wrong way. They're going to be ready every time we face them. I thought tonight we had a fairly good game, but at the end of the day, you play to win and you should never be satisfied when you lose."