Red Wings escape with shootout win against Wild

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings did not like the way they beat the Minnesota Wild.
Center Pavel Datsyuk and right winger Gustav Nyquist scored in the shootout to give the Red Wings a 5-4 win against the Wild on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Detroit blew a 4-1 lead in the third period.
“It’s obviously not the way we wanted to win the game,” Nyquist said. “We found a way in the end. It was nice to get the two points. Up 4-1, going into the third, let them tie it up. We didn’t do a good enough job of playing above them. I think they got on the inside.”
Nyquist had a goal and an assist, right winger Teemu Pulkkinen got his first career goal and defensemen Jonathan Ericsson and Xavier Ouellet scored for Detroit. Center Henrik Zetterberg had three assists and goaltender Petr Mrazek made 34 saves.
The Red Wings improved their shootout record to 2-7.
“We’ve had some troubles with that. I don’t know our stats really, but they’re not good,” Nyquist said. “Every win you get in a shootout is a nice bonus point there.”
Left winger Zach Parise had two goals, left winger Thomas Vanek had a goal and an assist and center Mikko Koivu scored for Minnesota. Defenseman Ryan Suter had two assists.
Goalie Devan Dubnyk made six saves and allowed four goals before being pulled in favor Darcy Kuemper almost halfway through the game. Kuemper made 14 saves.
“We had a chance to win the game. We were in a pretty big hole against a real good team,” Parise said. “We came back to have a chance to win.”
Parise’s second goal tied it at 4 with 6:39 left in regulation. He intercepted Ericsson’s pass in front from behind his own net and jammed in his third attempt past Mrazek.
“I was lucky. The guy shot the puck right into my shaft and it just lay there,” Parise said. “I just tried to backhand it. I really don’t know exactly how it went in.”
He has five goals in his last four games and 19 for the season.
Vanek made it 4-3 with 9:59 left.
Pulkkinen opened the scoring 9:09 into the game.
Pulkkinen also took his first career penalty a little over four minutes later and Minnesota capitalized immediately.
Koivu beat Mrazek with a wrist shot from the right circle with 6:38 left in the first period, seven seconds into the penalty to tie the game. It was Koivu’s seventh goal.
The Red Wings regained the lead on Ericsson’s goal with 5:30 remaining in the opening period. His second goal came on a one-time slap shot from the left point.
Nyquist’s power-play goal 3:41 into the second period made it 3-1. It was Nyquist’s 19th goal and 11th on the power play. It was also his third goal in three games.
Ouellet got his second goal at 7:25 and Dubnyk was pulled and replaced by Kuemper.
Detroit had only 13 shots in the first two periods.
“The mood was fine. No one was hanging their heads. We said, ‘Keep going’,” Vanek said. “We were happy with the way we were playing the first two periods.”
Minnesota 1 0 3- 4
Detroit 2 2 0- 5
First Period-1, Detroit, Pulkkinen 1 (Weiss, Smith) 9:09. 2, Minnesota, Koivu 7 (Suter) 13:22 (pp). 3, Detroit, Ericsson 2 (Nyquist, Zetterberg) 14:30.
Second Period-4, Detroit, Nyquist 19 (Kronwall, Zetterberg) 3:41 (pp). 5, Detroit, Ouellet 2 (Zetterberg, Abdelkader) 7:25.
Third Period-6, Minnesota, Parise 18 (Pominville, Vanek) 6:01 (pp). 7, Minnesota, Vanek 9 (Suter, Carter) 10:01. 8, Minnesota, Parise 19 (unassisted) 13:21.
Overtime-
Shootout-Minnesota 0 (Parise NG, Koivu NG), Detroit 2 (Datsyuk G, Nyquist G).
Shots on Goal-Minnesota 10-12-13-38. Detroit 6-7-8-24.
Power-play opportunities-Minnesota 2 of 5. Detroit 1 of 2.
Goalies-Minnesota Kuemper 13-12-2 (14 shots-14 saves), Dubnyk 0-0-0 (10-6). Detroit Mrazek 9-3-1 (38-34).
A-20,027 (20,066). T-2:41.