ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Canucks were tired and a little testy, perhaps prematurely looking ahead to the Olympic break.
Given seven power-play opportunities against a division rival, the Wild took full advantage of the rough stuff with one of its best all-around games of the season.
Niklas Backstrom got his first win in three weeks, and the Wild scored three of its four power-play goals against Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, sending the Olympian to the bench early in a 6-2 victory on Sunday.
“If teams want to take liberties and unnecessary penalties and retaliatory penalties, that’s where your power play has got to step up,” Wild coach Todd Richards said.
Guillaume Latendresse, Marek Zidlicky and Andrew Brunette scored on the power play, and Kyle Brodziak added an even-strength goal for Minnesota, which had beaten Vancouver only once in nine previous meetings until winning the last two.
Cal Clutterbuck’s shot off an uncovered rebound in the slot with 11:56 remaining slipped past Luongo for a 5-1 lead, prompting coach Alain Vigneault to summon backup Andrew Raycroft to finish up.
With seven of his players headed to the Olympics and the others eager to rest, Vigneault expressed disappointment in the effort.
“I don’t know if it was the overall fatigue or if quite a few of our big guns had their minds somewhere else,” the coach said, “but it is what it is.”
Because the Olympics are in their city, the Canucks played on the road for the eighth straight game since Jan. 30 and have six consecutive road games after the break through March 10. The Canucks, who got third-period goals from Mikael Samuelsson and Mason Raymond, went 4-4 with one shootout win on their first road stretch.
“I’m not ready to use that as an excuse,” Luongo said. “You’ve got to dig deep sometimes when you’re tired.”
