Ducks can’t close it out

Hold it right there, Ducks. You’ve got company on the trip back to Anaheim.

The dormant Minnesota Wild offense awoke with a fury Tuesday night, scoring four unanswered goals, three in a decisive third period, to stave off elimination with a 4-1 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center.

The Ducks still hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series heading into Game 5 Thursday night at the Honda Center. But their chance at a first-round sweep was soundly denied by a desperate Wild team that knew its season was on the line.

“The fourth one’s always the hardest,” Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said. “We have to go home now and win our home games. We were able to do that in the first two and we came in here and stole one. Now we’ve got the advantage going back home.”

Thoughts of a sweep began to emerge when Pronger ripped in a slap shot on the power play for a 1-0 lead in the second period. But the Wild, which had outplayed the Ducks to that point, finally got its offense on track.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard tied the score at 18 minutes, three seconds of the second before the Wild’s top line of Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra and Brian Rolston finally produced.

Gaborik broke the tie with the line’s second power-play goal of the series at 3:23 of the third. The advantage came as a result of a holding penalty on the Ducks’ Kent Huskins, who took Francois Beauchemin’s normal spot alongside Scott Niedermayer when Beauchemin came up ill Tuesday morning.

Until then, Minnesota had gone one for 18 on the power play in the series. Gaborik and Demitra had only one goal in the first three games and Rolston was scoreless.

“I honestly don’t think that we played any different tonight than we have in the first three games,” Rolston said.

Rolston and Demitra teamed on a pretty give-and-go play six minutes later that ended in Rolston’s easily beating Ilya Bryzgalov. Mark Parrish scored a goal on a deflection at 10:44 of the third as Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle pulled Bryzgalov in favor of Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

It was hardly Bryzgalov’s fault as the Ducks followed their best game of the series with their worst.

“We fully expected them to come out with their best game, which they did,” Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer said. “And we didn’t respond very well.”

The Ducks simply unraveled and their tough image turned downright ugly near the end of regulation.

Left wing Shawn Thornton jumped into a scuffle between Huskins and Minnesota forward Adam Hall and got a game misconduct as the third man in. About 10 feet away, Ducks winger Brad May punched Wild defenseman Kim Johnsson in the face.

May drew a match penalty and could face a suspension as the NHL was expected to review the incident today. Johnsson suffered a head injury, according to Wild officials, and went to a nearby hospital for observation.

May wouldn’t comment on whether he expected to be suspended.

“Obviously, there was something going on,” he said. “I didn’t even know what was happening. We were in the offensive zone. I came back and, of course, when [a fight] happens, you’re to pick somebody that comes into the pile. That’s the way it is.”

Wild forward Wes Walz said May should be suspended for several games.

“The days of sending a message left in the mid-’80s,” Walz said. “Brad suckering Kim Johnsson, I mean, he’s usually a pretty honest hockey player. Brad May’s a tough guy, a warrior. He’s fought lots of battles so I was pretty surprised he did that.

“I think a match is an automatic one-game suspension. But I think he’ll get a few more than that.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com