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Veilleux scores twice as Wild edge Ducks

Mar 9, 2009 - 3:51 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Stephane Veilleux netted a pair of goals Sunday, leading the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

All-Star Niklas Backstrom made 35 saves and Andrew Brunette also tallied for the Wild (32-28-5), who moved past the Ducks (31-30-6) for 10th place in a tight Western Conference playoff race.

Minnesota had lost five of its previous six contests.

"It was a team effort," Veilleux said. "We lost a game in LA and we were talking about regrouping and playing with composure. We moved on last night and did come back and play hard tonight."

"We scored enough goals and played well enough defensively," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "We didn't give them too much. They are always dangerous on the power play. They've got great shooters and playmakers. We didn't take too many penalties, which was an advantage, I think for us."

Todd Marchant scored a shorthanded goal, Corey Perry added a tally and Jonas Hiller stopped 22 shots for Anaheim, which has lost three games in a row.

Veilleux snapped a 1-1 tie with 3:32 left in the second period, blasting a slap shot past Hiller while on a breakaway. The play was set up by Owen Nolan, who delivered a perfect pass to a streaking Veilleux at the blue line.

Brunette doubled the advantage with 8:11 remaining in the third, converting a one-timer off a pass from James Sheppard. Perry halved the deficit with 22 ticks to play.

Veilleux, who has 10 goals on the season, also opened the scoring 68 seconds into the contest. He poked a rebound of Nick Schultz's shot past Hiller.

"For whatever reason, we did not seem to have the ability to stay with the structure," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We got out-battled on a lot of pucks, specifically in the front of the net. We had some chances, but we didn't get any second or third chances. We were one and out in that area. We had far too many turnovers into the middle of the ice."

Marchant leveled the contest after defenseman Chris Pronger was whistled for roughing, notching his second shorthanded goal of the campaign and 25th career at 5:10 of the middle session.

"We've been making little mistakes like this that are costly," Lemaire said. "I can't say that we don't rebound after - we keep playing. These little mistakes are killers, because you feel good about what you are doing, and one little mistake it's in the net."