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Minnesota 2, Vancouver 1

ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Manny Fernandez came within 21 seconds of his second straight shutout and Sergei Zholtok and Wes Walz scored third-period goals Tuesday night to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Coming off a 2-0 blanking at San Jose in his last start on Wednesday, Fernandez held Vancouver off the board until Matt Cooke scored 19:39 into the third period. He made 26 saves and backstopped the Wild to their third win in four games.

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Fernandez outdueled Dan Cloutier, who stopped all 14 shots over two periods and finished with 16 saves.

Zholtok broke the scoreless deadlock with 9:05 remaining when he won a battle for the puck along the right boards and moved to the top of the faceoff circle. With traffic in front of the net, Zholtok took a slap shot that beat Dan Cloutier just inside the left goalpost for his fourth goal.

Walz made it 2-0 with 2:41 remaining as he took a feed in the right circle from Pascal Dupuis. With his back to the net, Walz turned and put a wrist shot through traffic and past Cloutier for his third goal of the season and second in as many games.

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The Canucks halved the deficit in the final minute as Markus Naslund passed from behind the net to Cooke, who one-timed the puck past Fernandez for his sixth goal.

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