Wild overwhelm Red Wings, 6-3, for fourth straight win

Back on Nov. 26, the Wild spent a listless afternoon losing a hockey game to the Red Wings in Detroit, extending the team’s winless streak to seven games, a skid that cost former coach Dean Evason his job.

It was a different team that hit the ice against the Red Wings on Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center. Not a perfect one, but certainly a better one.

Marcus Johansson scored twice, and Ryan Hartman started a three-goal unanswered run with the go-ahead goal at 4:36 of the third period as Minnesota beat Detroit, 6-3, for its fourth straight victory.

Matt Boldy, Marcus Foligno and Kirill Kaprizov also scored for Minnesota, which won for the seventh straight time at home and improved to 11-3-0 since John Hynes became head coach the day after that bad loss in Detroit.

Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat and Daniel Sprong scored for Detroit, which lost for the eighth time in its past 11 games. James Reimer made 25 saves.

Boldy scored in the first 38 seconds, sending Minnesota to its 10th straight win when the Wild score first. Minnesota lost a pair of one-goal leads but broke open a 2-2 third-period tie on goals by Hartman, Foligno and Johansson, who scored just one goal in his first 29 games this season but now has three in his past four games.

Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves for Minnesota, improving to 8-2-0 with a 1.77 goals-against average in his past 10 starts.

Johansson buried a rebound from between the circles for a go-ahead goal just 1:37 into the second period, but the Red Wings answered early in the third on a power play goal by Alex DeBrincat at 2:43.

The Wild took a quick 1-0 lead after their entire top line got behind the Red Wings’ defense in the first minute of play. Boldy started a rush in his own end, sending a long cross-ice pass to Joel Eriksson Ek, who left two tangled Red Wings at center ice.

Eriksson Ek sent a pass across the ice that was grabbed by Boldy between the circles. He passed to Kaprizov in the right circle, sending Reimer to his left, and Kaprizov sent it straight back. Boldy poked the puck into an open net with just 38 seconds off the clock.

It was one of several Grade A chances for the Wild in the first period, including another by Boldy in the crease in the game’s opening seconds, and a solo breakaway by Marco Rossi that Reimer stopped. But momentum flipped after a Wild turnover in the neutral zone.

Boldly passed across the Red Wings blue line to defenseman Nick Bogosian, who let the puck slip between his legs. In the confusion, Kane snuck to the Wild blue line — behind Bogosian and Alex Goligoski — and got a pass from Alex DeBrincat, skated into the slot and fired a shot near corner to beat Gustavsson to tie the game, 1-1, at 6:32.

From that point, the first period essentially belonged to Detroit, which got a series of open looks on Gustavsson — two on own-zone turnovers — but couldn’t take a lead. And never did.

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