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Perry, Hiller help Ducks down Wild

Jan 18, 2009 - 6:18 AM ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- The Anaheim Ducks have not been playing well lately, but they certainly found their game against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

Corey Perry scored twice and Jonas Hiller stopped all 30 shots he faced as the Ducks recorded a 3-0 triumph over the Wild.

Rookie Bobby Ryan also tallied for Anaheim, which snapped a two-game skid and improved to 2-4-0 in its last six contests.

Hiller stopped eight shots in the first period, 10 in the second and 12 in the third to preserve his fourth shutout of both the season and his career.

The Swiss netminder made perhaps his biggest save of the night 4:17 into the second period, when he denied Pierre-Marc Bouchard on a breakaway.

"He tried to go glove high," Hiller said. "I was expecting that and was happy to make the save."

"It was scoreless halfway through the game, and he had a big save on the breakaway," Perry said. "He's been playing well for us recently, and that's what we need - someone to step up and keep us in some tight games."

All-Star Niklas Backstrom turned aside 31 shots for Minnesota, which fell to 4-3-0 in its last seven games.

"We had some chances to get goals and maybe build up some confidence," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "(The Ducks) are a team (that if) they get a couple of chances, they will bury you. Every mistake you make, they take advantage."

The Ducks capitalized on a failed clearing attempt to open the scoring.

After Minnesota defenseman Kim Johnsson unsuccessfully tried to clear the zone, Andrew Ebbett alertly sent a cross-slot pass to Perry, who fended off Eric Belanger and tapped the puck past Backstrom at 8:13 of the first period for a power-play goal.

"It was a nice pass by (Ebbett)," Perry said. "He found me back door, and I got just enough wood on it to get it over the line."

"It was an important goal, it got us the lead," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "If you score a goal against Minnesota, they have to come out of their check, check, check way of playing."

The tally held up until Ryan doubled the Ducks' advantage 6:04 into the third.

After defenseman Steve Montador's blast from the right point deflected off multiple bodies in front of the net, the 21-year-old Ryan - who was drafted second overall in 2005 - grabbed the puck in the left faceoff circle and beat Backstrom for his 13th of the season and seventh in his last eight games.

"The puck was on edge and it got away from me," Montador said. "The shot went high, lucky nobody got hurt."

"It was certainly a flowing game, a lot of up and back," Ryan said. "Both teams had a lot of offensive-zone time. For us, we want to try and grind them down there and get some shots from the point. We did that tonight and got rewarded."

Perry capped the scoring with 24 seconds remaining, when he received a centering feed from All-Star Ryan Getzlaf and backhanded the puck past Backstrom for his 13th goal.