DETROIT — Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala both scored in the shootout, lifting the Minnesota Wild to a messy 6-5 victory over the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night.
Rookie Matt Boldy scored twice in regulation, and Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek also had goals to help Minnesota sweep the season series. Cam Talbot made 29 saves and stopped Jakub Vrana and Dylan Larkin in the shootout to seal the Wild's second straight win.
Vrana and Lucas Raymond each scored twice for the Wings in regulation, and Jordan Oesterle had a goal with 2:51 left that tied it at 5 for Detroit. Nick Leddy had three assists for the Red Wings, who blew a 4-2 second-period lead, were outshot 40-34 and lost their fourth game in a row.
Boldy opened the scoring and Vrana, who missed the first five months of the season with a shoulder injury suffered on the first day of training camp, tied it for Detroit.
Eriksson Ek was credited with an unassisted goal when Detroit goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic accidentally put the puck between his legs into the net while trying to clear it to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead.
After Raymond tied it, Vrana scored a power-play goal to put Detroit up 3-2 after one period. Raymond scored again in the second period to give the Red Wings a two-goal lead.
Zuccarello scored a power-play goal in the second period, and Boldy and Kaprizov scored in the third to put Minnesota up 5-4. But Oesterle tied it late in regulation to send it to overtime.
Between all the goals came a major brawl at the end of the second period that even involved goaltenders. Cam Talbot skated the length of the ice to throw down with Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic as their teammates duked and wrestled on the ice.
"You never know. You have to expect the unexpected at that point," Talbot told NHL.com. "At first I was just going down to grab him and pull him off and make it even. If it came to that so be it. At that point I was just trying to pull guys off."
Officials eventually peeled Talbot off the pile of bodies before the goalies could actually fight, escorting Talbot then Nedeljkovic to their respective benches while their teammates held a yard sale.
The Wild somehow came out of the fracas shorthanded, but killed off the penalty and promptly scored two goals to take the lead. That wouldn't stick, as Detroit managed a goal to tie things with less than four minutes remaining, forcing the shootout.
"We were up and down. But it was a very emotional game," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "There's a lot of intensity right now which probably is a good thing. We need to be that intense in order for us to play the way that we want to play. We did play the right way tonight. That's a good team. We don't see these teams a lot and you look at records and it's like how the heck does that happen because they got speed and size and maybe inexperience a little bit but real good team. Real good team."
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