The Wild rallied with three third period goals to force overtime in Detroit Tuesday night, but lost to the Red Wings 5-4 in a shootout at Joe Louis Arena.
Gustav Nyquist’s shootout goal clinched the victory for the Red Wings. Despite the loss, the Wild did pick up a badly needed point by forcing overtime.
Zach Parise had a pair of third period goals and Thomas Vanek added his ninth goal of the season to key the Wild’s comeback. The goals extended a goal streak for Parise.
Parise scores to make it 4-2. 4-game goal streak for Parise
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 21, 2015
This embed is invalid
The turning point may have occurred when Wild coach Mike Yeo turned to a familiar face in net. Darcy Kuemper didn’t start, but he came on in relief of newly acquired Devyn Dubnyk in the second period.
Dubnyk surrendered four goals in the first two periods, leading Yeo to turn back to Kuemper, who had just come off the injured reserve Monday.
Darcy Kuemper replacing Dubnyk after Wings score fourth time. Dubnyk had no chance on last one that deflected off Fontaine's skate.
— Brian Hall (@MNBrianHall) January 21, 2015
Kuemper stopped all 14 shots he faced in place of Dubnyk the rest of the way.
But in the shootout both Nyquist and Pavel Datsyuk beat Kuemper, while Parise and Mikko Koivu were stopped by Red Wings’ goaltender Petr Mrazek.
The loss sends the Wild into the All-Star break with back-to-back losses in as many nights. Minnesota doesn’t return to action until Jan. 27 at Edmonton.
Scoring Summary
1st period: 9:09 DET – Teemu Pulkkinen (1) Slap shot – Assist: Stephen Weiss (9), Brendan Smith (6) 1-0 DET
1st period: 13:22 MIN PPG – Mikko Koivu (7) Wrist shot – Assist: Ryan Suter (23) 1-1 Tie
1st period: 14:30 DET – Jonathan Erickson (2) Slap shot – Assist: Gustav Nyquist (17), Henrik Zetterberg (28) 2-1 DET
2nd period: 3:41 DET PPG – Gustav Nyquist (19) Deflected shot – Assist: Niklas Kronwall (22), Zetterberg (29) 3-1 DET
2nd period: 7:25 DET – Xavier Ouellet (2) Slap shot – Assist: Zettterberg (30), Justin Abdelkader (15) 4-1 DET
3rd period: 6:01 MIN PPG – Zach Parise (18) Wrist shot – Assist: Jason Pominville (29), Thomas Vanek (20) 4-2 DET
3rd period: 10:01 MIN – Thomas Vanek (9) Backhand shot – Assist: None 4-3 DET
3rd period: 13:21 MIN – Parise (19) Wrist shot – Assist: None 4-4 Tie
