In St Paul, a four-goal third period spurred the Wild to a 6-3 win over the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night. 
Marcus Johansson hit for a double and three points in the win.
“We got some confidence back in the group, and we know that we can score goals to win games,” Johansson said. “I feel like the way the game was going, we were playing better and better the whole game, too. Coming out of the break, I feel like we built our game up as the game went along. Once you get one or two there, it makes it easier for us and harder for them.”
The Wild have won four straight and moved to 16-13-4.
“It was a great start to the game, and we were certainly ready to play, and that was good to see,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Not just the first goal, but I thought we played the way we wanted to play. In the first, I thought that they made a good push, and I’d say the middle part of the game we were on our heels a little bit. And I really liked our third period.
“So, I’d say the start and the end was more of what we needed, but you got to find ways to win games, and I thought the response after they tied the game 2-2 was really good.”
Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves in the win.
The Wild took a 1-0 lead on a marker from Matt Boldy with 38 seconds gone in the opening stanza.
Detroit’s Patrick Kane scored at 6:32 off a turnover to tie the game, 1-1.
“You don’t want to say they’re must-win games at this point in the season,” Kane said. “But it’s a pretty important stretch if you think about what we got going from here until the All-Star break or bye week or whatever you want to call it. That will be a big stress for us where we’re going to have to put together a good record over that stretch.”
Johansson scored his first of the game at 1:37 of the middle frame to give the Wild a 2-1 lead.
Detroit dropped to 16-15-4.
In the third period, Detroit got back to even, 2-2, off a power play strike by Alex DeBrincat at 2:43.
Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman restored the Wild lead, 3-2, at 4:35.
Marcus Foligno pushed the lead to 4-2 just 52 seconds later.
“You’d like to have a little more of a lead going into the third,” Foligno said. “But they scored a good power-play goal and then ‘Hartzy,’ who played great tonight, really provided that little punch that we needed to get going again. He seemed to be everywhere tonight, and it was a good game by him and Johansson.
“That line helped us get our rhythm back, and then you get up to 5-2. Yeah, it’s the blink of an eye. A lot of good plays to get us there.”
Johansson picked up his double at 6:42 of the third for a 5-2 advantage to the Wild.
Detroit’s Daniel Sprong tried to rally the Wings back with a goal at 8:00 of the third for a 5-3 score.
“Sometimes you go through these stretches, and you can’t pinpoint this or there’s things you can’t control, and this is easily controllable,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “I think the guys see it, now it’s a matter having some discipline to execute it. … We got to manage our games much better.”
Kirill Kaprizov then added a marker at 14:15 for the final count at 6-3.
James Reimer made 25 saves in the loss.
“We gave ourselves a chance making it 2-2 on the power play, and then obviously them getting three quick ones kind of puts us out of the game,” Kane said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.