The Anaheim Ducks used a typically stifling performance to wrap up their opening-round playoff series in five games with a 4-1 home win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.

Chris Pronger, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Travis Moen — on an empty-netter — scored for the Ducks, who held Minnesota to one goal for the third time in their NHL Western Conference quarter-final.

Ducks enforcer George Parros exchanges words from the bench with Wild tough guy Derek Boogaard (24) in the opening period of Game 5.
(Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

A second-period shorthanded goal by Marian Gaborik was all the offence mustered by the overmatched Wild, who went 0-for-5 on the power play to finish 2-for-27 on the series.

Goalie Niklas Backstrom provided a bright spot for Minnesota, making 35 saves.

"I feel really empty," said Backstrom, a 29-year-old rookie from Finland who was the NHL's stingiest goalie during the regular season. "I've been really working for this, and it's over too soon."

Backstrom's counterpart, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, stopped 26 shots in his first start of the playoffs.

Anaheim's No. 1 goalie in the regular season, Giguere had been available for the first four games, but Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle elected to use him as the backup to Ilya Bryzgalov after Giguere missed the last few games of the regular season to tend to his newborn son's medical issue.

"It's been an emotional couple of weeks," Giguere said. "A lot of things have happened. Just getting back in there and winning a hockey game was awesome. But I really can't take credit for this series.

"The guys did a great job and Bryz played unbelievable in the first four games."

Costly penalty by Boogaard

The Ducks also benefited from the return of defenceman Francois Beauchemin, who missed Game 4 in Minnesota after a puck struck him in the jaw in Game 3.

The Wild, meanwhile, were forced to play without Kim Johnsson, who was knocked woozy by a Brad May sucker punch during a melee at the end of Game 4.

With plenty of tough talk about the incident emanating from both teams' tough guys, it was fitting that Game 5 turned on a penalty by Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard, who helped incite a pre-game shoving match by exchanging words with the Ducks' George Parros.

The Ducks were nursing a 1-0 lead earned on Pronger's power-play goal 1:02 into the game when Boogaard received a double minor for high sticking with five minutes remaining in the second period.

Ironically, the mammoth winger's team quickly tied the game as Gaborik converted a shorthanded 2-on-1 feed from Wes Walz. But less than a minute later, Getzlaf shovelled a backhand off the post and in for a power-play goal that would hold up as the game winner.

Perry tacked on an insurance marker midway through the third period, and Moen iced the game with an empty-netter with 57 seconds remaining.

The Ducks must await the outcome of other Western Conference series to see who they'll face in the next round. 

With files from the Associated Press