Ducks@Wild

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Final : Ducks 3 Wild 4
Starting Goaltender: J.S. Giguere
Giguere got his first start of the season. As they battle between who gets the starting goalie position. Both goalies are to split the time. We should see both goalies fighting for the No. 1 spot throughout the next few games. Brothers Saku and Mikko Koivu played against one another in tonight’s game. Special game for the Koivu bothers.

Giguere covered up a shot which had bounced off of Stephanson’s stick. Bobby Ryan is assigned the first penalty of the game for hooking. Giguere handled the puck whacking the puck away with the back hand helping his team clear out the zone and helping further kill the penalty on Bobby Ryan

Those who deny that the style Giguere plays doesn’t fit today’s NHL could and probably will be proven wrong this season as Giguere has his head back in the game of hockey and is looking to re-secure and keep his No 1 spot secured for the 2009-2010 season. His positioning and poise so far has been fine.
Giguere came into the game against the Minnesota Wild with 302 wins and 31 shutouts and is the Ducks winningest goalie.

Bobby Ryan had a huge hit hooray!

The defense is playing better in front of Giguere than they did in front of Hiller. However the second game of the season, the Ducks still show signs of needing to gel with the new faces on the team.

Giguere makes a huge save to keep the game 0-0. Giguere makes a save on Mikko Koivu, as he slightly came out of his crease. He absorbed the puck into his chest. The save was huge as Ryan Getzlaf sat in the penalty box.

Ryan Whitney makes a smart play and shoots the puck from the point. Joffrey Lupul makes sure the puck gets into the net and trickles it past Niklas Backstorm, it is Jofferey Lupul’s first goal of the regular season. Lupul is hit by the puck in the face, he skates off the ice by his own power, but he headed to the Ducks locker room. Evgeny Atyukin has his first goal as a Duck making the Wild trail 2-0, great pass by Corey Perry.

Giguere is all Giguere tonight. The Ducks know this is who he really is. Giguere is back!

Saku Koivu scores his first goal as a Duck of the regular season with the help of Ryan Whitney and James Wisniewski. How can you hate Mike Brown? You can’t! He got involved in the scrape, as always.

Giguere hadn’t seen too much action as the Ducks play better against the Wild than they did against the San Jose Sharks in the season opener. Niklas Backstrom sees and has quite a lot pressure on him.

Giguere’s glove hand has improved, an area where he has struggled throughout his career. Giguere has showed more puck handling. Giguere comes all in his power to prevent goals for the Minnesota Wild. Giguere is more positioned to the shooter which has enabled him to prevent any type of goal from the Wild.
Giguere has left few rebounds but it can’t be said he has a completely clean record this game of rebounds otherwise he has not let rebounds happen for the majority of the game.

Joffrey Lupul returned to the game for the 3rd period with stitches above his eye. That is why hockey is amazing.

Scott tries to rev up his team fighting George Parros, Scott got the better of Georgie, and George looked frustrated for that very reason.
Did you know that J.S. Giguere doesn’t want anyone to block any shots in front of him? He wants to see them all the way. (From Brian Hayward, former goalie and Ducks t.v. announcer)

Giguere made a point blank stop bailing out his teammates on the penalty kill. Mikko Koivu scored on the Wild’s power play both Koivu brothers had a power play goal. On the goal, Giguere looked like he wasn’t exactly sure where the puck was as Koivu shot it to put the puck past him.

Petr Sykora, who played for the Ducks for one season scored low on Giguere as he left an open net and Sykora got passed Marchant The Ducks and Giguere got a break as Giguere had a piece of the puck and the puck went off the post. The last 5 minutes of the game the Wild poured on the pressure in the Ducks zone.
Eric Belanger scores on the power play sniping it through Giguere’s leg. This team looks like the team on Saturday in the 3rd period. We keep leaving the goalie up to dry in the 3rd when we have a lead and end up blowing it. It has been done with both Giguere and Hiller in the net both have been thrown under the bus because the team
lays back.
Andrew Brunette scored on the power play to give the Wild the win.

Overall, Giguere played well but like Hiller he still has rust though Giguere seemingly did better than Hiller but the team in front of both goaltenders really needs to improve.
Scorers:
1st Period:
No Score

2nd Period:
Anaheim: Joffrey Lupul Assists: Ryan Whitney, James Wisniewski
Anaheim: Evgeny Artyukhin Assists: Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf
Anaheim: Power Play Goal: Saku Koivu Assists: James Wisniewski, Ryan Whitney

3rd Period:
Minnesota: Power Play Goal: Mikko Koivu Assists: Martin Havlat, Andrew Brunette
Minnesota: Petr Sykora Assists: Eric Belanger, Martin Havlat
Minnesota Power Play Goal: Eric Belanger Assists: Martin Havlat, Brent Burns

Overtime:
Minnesota: Power Play Goal Andrew Brunette. Assists: Eric Belanger, Kim Johnsson