Eric Staal and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and assist, while Devan Dubnyk stopped 25 shots as the Minnesota Wild beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Wednesday.
Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker also scored for Minnesota, who enter the All-Star break with three wins in four games.
The streak comes in the middle of a season-high seven-game home stand that continues after this weekend’s All-Star break.
Detroit’s Filip Zadina was credited with two goals, his first NHL multi-goal game, but both came on deflections off a Wild player.
Jimmy Howard had 29 saves for the Red Wings, who head into their break having lost six in a row overall and eight straight on the road.
Dubnyk, starting for the first time in four games, was rarely challenged, but a bit unlucky.
Detroit got the first goal of the game 3 minutes, 8 seconds in after Zadina’s cross-ice pass to Tyler Bertuzzi deflected off the stick of Minnesota center Joel Eriksson Ek, sending the puck up and over Dubnyk’s shoulder.
The Wild answered just more than a minute later, when Matt Dumba’s point shot was blocked by Howard, but the puck dropped straight to the ice and Greenway was in position to swat the puck behind him into the net.
Zadina scored again with 3 minutes, 21 seconds left in the first period after his shot from the circle was saved by Dubnyk. The puck bounced off Dubnyk and defenseman Jared Spurgeon before ricocheting back under the goaltender, who accidentally knocked it into the net.
They were breaks not often seen this season by Detroit, who enter the break having the fewest wins, points and goals scored per game, while also allowing the most goals per game.
It was the 15th time in 51 games the Red Wings held a lead after the first period.
The advantage did not last long.
Minnesota pressed to open the second and tied it 1 minute, 12 seconds into the period as Zuccarello followed his own shot and batted the rebound out of the air past Howard.
Zucker scored on a breakaway a minute later to take the lead and Staal, who was honored before the game for scoring his 100th point earlier this season, finished the scoring.
Elsewhere, the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-3.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB