ST. PAUL, Minn. – His teammates had dead legs in front of him and were grinding away in survival mode throughout. The opposing team attacked at will, without much of a counter response to worry about. The makings of a disastrous trip seemed to be at hand.
And there was John Gibson still standing at the end, with those Ducks teammates congratulating him and knowing deep down that they had no business escaping with a 1-0 win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Maybe it wasn’t so deep down. The Ducks were at the end of the trip, possessing just one win in their first five games and clinging to that one goal provided by Joseph Cramarossa in the opening minutes. Except on their side was Gibson, who’s working his way toward becoming their great equalizer.
Gibson stopped all 37 shots that got to him, withstood the 76 the Western Conference-leading Wild fired in his direction and got a little divine intervention when Christian Folin’s slapshot in the third beat him but hit the post.
In the end, the goalie’s show-stopping performance resulted in his fourth shutout of the season.
“You need that,” Cramarossa said. “It’s huge. That’s an example tonight of one goal early and it took you the whole way. That’s a big thanks to him. Bernie’s (Jonathan Bernier’s) done the same in a few games and that’s huge.
“Every team’s looking for a goalie like that and we’re lucky to have two of them.”
Gibson’s act of larceny kept the Ducks (30-18-10) in second place above Edmonton and pulled them to within three points of first-place San Jose. Minnesota was blanked for only the third time this season as Wild coach Bruce Boudreau was denied a three-game season sweep over his former team.
The Ducks are seeing Gibson meet the demands of being a clear-cut No. 1 goalie for the first time. And after getting his 10th career shutout, the 23-year-old of few words was matter of fact.
“We knew it was a big game,” Gibson said. “It wasn’t the road trip we wanted and we knew if we could end on a good note it would kind of build confidence and salvage the trip.”
The Ducks got their goal just 4:38 into the game. Corey Perry’s sharp-angle shot was stopped by Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk but a rebound left by his skates at the net was there for the arriving Cramarossa to jump on and pop behind him.
Asked if he thought it would stand up, Cramarossa said, “Probably not. You never know what’s going to happen but I think it’s a pretty rare situation that an early goal in the first holds up. But it is what it is.”
But in winning, the Ducks will likely deal with a loss. Antoine Vermette was ejected with 12:27 left in the third after he chopped the back of linesman’s Shandor Alphonso leg following a faceoff. It was a clear-cut act that has him facing a potential suspension.
A league source said game officials are expected to file a report to Colin Campbell, the NHL’s director of hockey operations, putting Vermette under consideration for supplementary discipline. Rule 40, which covers the physical abuse of officials, has varying levels to apply an automatic ban.
In Vermette’s case, determining whether there was intent to injure or not will factor in the length. A Category II offense for a player “who deliberately applies physical force to an official in any matter, which physical force is applied without intent to injure” is at least 10 games.
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said Vermette reacted to not being ready for Alphonso dropping the puck and that the veteran forward wasn’t vicious or had malice in striking him. But he added, “He touched the official. What are you going to do?”
“To me, these are things that the league reviews,” Carlyle continued. “We have a view on it; they have a view on it. Whatever they decide, we have to live with.”
And yet the Ducks somehow came out smiling in the end because of their last line of defense. The Wild had a 29-12 shot advantage after two periods but couldn’t get one past the goalie. They never did.
“You’re just battling in there,” Gibson said. “If you worry about the end result, it’s not going to get you very far.”
Contact the writer: estephens@scng.com
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