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Helm, Red Wings top Wild in SO

Apr 5, 2015 - 5:58 AM St. Paul, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Darren Helm's goal during the eighth round of the shootout lifted the Detroit Red Wings to a much-needed 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild Saturday.

Gustav Nyquist, Detroit's second shooter, raced in and slipped a backhander through Devan Dubnyk's pads, but Jason Pominville kept Minnesota alive by wristing a shot past Jimmy Howard's glove in the third round.

Thomas Vanek used trickery to beat Howard in the fourth round by sweeping his stick over the puck and firing a shot over the glove, but Riley Sheahan countered by wristing a shot over a sprawled Dubnyk.

After neither team lit the lamp in the next three rounds, Helm followed a Justin Fontaine miss with the deciding marker. His low shot hit off Dubnyk's leg and bounced back out, but the Minnesota netminder made the stop over the goal line and the game ended following a brief review.

Nyquist and Sheahan each scored in regulation and Howard made 22 saves in his first start since March 26th for Detroit, which ended a three-game skid and is tied with Boston for third place in the Atlantic Division and also Pittsburgh for the top wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with 95 points.

"It was a good win for us," said Detroit coach Mike Babcock.

Parise supplied two goals, while Dubnyk made 20 stops for the Wild, who had a chance to clinch a playoff berth with a win, but dropped its second in a row.

"I felt like we should've won the game so it's disappointing to not get the second (point)," Parise said.

With 2:47 to play in the second period, Nyquist gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead on a power-play goal. He accepted a feed from Henrik Zetterberg down low and sent a perfectly-placed wrister over Dubnyk's shoulder into the top of the net.

Parise's second goal of the night tied the game 6:33 into the final stanza as he redirected Pominville's shot from the top of the left circle while on the man advantage.

The Wild went to the power play with just over two minutes to play after Stephen Weiss tripped Ryan Suter, but the Red Wings killed it off and the game went to overtime.

Parise started the scoring by tipping in a pass from Mikael Granlund from atop the goalmouth with 5:53 left in the first, but Sheahan responded by wristing home the rebound of Zetterberg's shot to tie the game less than two minutes later.

Game Notes

Detroit star forward Pavel Datsyuk returned to the lineup after missing seven of the past nine games with a lower-body injury ... Wild captain Mikko Koivu was a late scratch due to an eye injury, while defenseman Nate Prosser played for the first time since missing eight games with a sprained knee ... Parise notched his fifth multi-goal game of the season ... Minnesota lost consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 19-20.