Todd Bertuzzi and Pavel Datsyuk both scored in the shootout as the Detroit Red Wings completed a perfect road trip with a 2-1 win in Minnesota.
Bertuzzi, playing his 1,000th career NHL game, waited out Wild goalie Nicklas Backstrom before lifting a backhander into the top of the net as Detroit went 2-for-3 in the skills session. Datsyuk tallied on Detroit’s first try, using a nifty deke to beat Backstrom with a wrister on the short-side.
Jimmy Howard was solid in net for Detroit, stopping 25 shots in regulation and both shootout attempts he faced as the Wings won their fifth consecutive contest.
The teams were scoreless after two periods before Nicklas Lidstrom ripped a slap shot from the point through traffic past Backstrom a little over a minute into the third period, the only shot in Detroit’s 39 tries that beat the goalie in regulation.
Five minutes into the third, Martin Havlat tied the score on a breakaway that beat Howard through the five-hole.
Neither team was able to net the winner in the extra session, mostly due to Backstrom. He made a spectacular glove save on Dan Cleary while sprawled on his belly, then survived Datsyuk’s drive from the slot that rang off the goal post just moments later.