Howard Stops Six in Shootout as Red Wings Beat Wild

Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard stopped six shooters in an eight-round shootout on Saturday night, leading the Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.

It was just Howard’s second shootout win of the season. He had made eleven saves in nine previous shootouts, going 1-8.

Howard stopped Zach Parise and Charlie Coyle to open the tiebreaker before Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek scored. He then held off Nino Niederreiter, Chris Stewart, Mikael Granlund, and Justin Fontaine.

Darren Helm scored in the eighth round, beating Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk on a shot that had to be reviewed to confirm that it crossed the goal line. Gustav Nyquist scored in the second round while Riley Sheahan kept the Red Wings alive in the fourth. Dubnyk stopped Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Tatar, Henrik Zetterberg, Stephen Weiss, and Niklas Kronwall.

Parise had opened the game’s scoring with 5:53 left in the first period, tipping a Granlund pass to the front of the net past Howard after a Detroit turnover at their own blue line.

The Red Wings responded just 1:52 later when Sheahan – perched on the edge of Dubnyk’s crease – knocked home the rebound of a Weiss chance.

Nyquist’s low-angle shot over Dubnyk’s shoulder with 2:47 remaining in the second gave the Red Wings their only lead of the night on their first power play, making it 2-1.

Parise replied with a Minnesota power play goal, tipping a Pominville chance past Howard at 6:33 of the third period.

The Wild finished the night one-for-six on the power play while the Red Wings went one-for-two.

Howard made 22 saves on 24 shots against. Dubnyk stopped twenty of the 22 shots he faced.

The Red Wings are back at it on Sunday as they host the Washington Capitals.

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Detroit was without forwards Erik Cole and Tomas Jurco. Daniel Cleary was a healthy scratch and Johan Franzen remains on injured reserve… Jakub Kindl was a healthy scratch on defense while Jonas Gustavsson remained out in goal.