Wings 2, Minnesota 1
ST. PAUL, Minn (WWJ/AP) - Todd Bertuzzi scored the game winning goal in a shootout over his old nemesis the Minnesota Wild, clinching the 2-1 win for the Wings in St. Paul Sunday.
In a game heard live on 97.1 The Ticket, regulation play ended with the game tied at 1-1. Lidstrom's goal, the 12th of the season for the 40-year-old captain, was his first in the last 22 games.
Bertuzzi, who had two goals apiece in three of his previous four games, skated in his 1,000th career game. He became the 263rd player in NHL history, 33 of them still active, to reach that milestone.
Goalie Jimmy Howard also gave the Red Wings a big hand in their fifth straight victory.
After Pavel Datsyuk flipped a first-round shot over Niklas Backstrom's stick, Howard denied the Wild's Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Matt Cullen to set up Bertuzzi's winner.
Howard has given up only one shootout goal in 14 attempts this season.
Minnesota's Martin Havlat answered Niklas Lidstrom's goal early in the third period by scoring on a breakaway to tie the game. Backstrom, who gave up only eight goals in his six previous starts this month, made 38 saves to keep the Wild competitive.
The Red Wings had at least one goal in 12 straight periods, scoring 20 times over the previous four games, but Backstrom and his blue-line buddies denied every opportunity by the league's second-highest-scoring team over the first two frames.
The Red Wings, chasing Vancouver for the top spot in the Western Conference, have won four in a row on the road.
This was just the second loss in the last seven home games for the Wild, who began the afternoon in 10th place, but just one point behind a four-way tie of teams.
The Wild are 10-5 in their last 15 games, and they played this one without captain and first-line center Mikko Koivu, who blocked a shot and hurt his hand Friday.
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