Wild defeat Red Wings, move into third in Central

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild moved into third place in the Central Division with a 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.
Jason Zucker had two goals and Devan Dubnyk made 28 saves for Minnesota (37-22-7, 81 points), which moved two points ahead of the Dallas Stars. The Wild are six points behind the second-place Winnipeg Jets.

Eric Staal scored his 34th goal of the season and Zach Parise extended his point streak to four games.
\[WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Wild highlights\]
"When we play our game, we can dominant. We can overwhelm teams," Dubnyk said. "It's not anything special, it's not Harlem Globetrotters stuff. It's just how good we compete when every single line plays hard and plays the right way, and that's the group that we have in here.
"We have to trust that and understand how important every game is and make sure we're ready to do that at the start every night."

Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit (26-29-10, 62 points) which lost its third straight game. The Red Wings are nine points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"We aren't finding ways to win right now, we're finding ways to lose," Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said.
Staal tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 7:22 of the second period, deflecting in a shot by Jared Spurgeon. Parise gave the Wild a 2-1 lead when he redirected a pass from Mikko Koivu at 10:15.
Zucker scored twice in the third period to help seal the win for Minnesota. He made it 3-1 at 15:42 when he redirected Mikael Granlund's feed from the right face-off circle before scoring an empty-net goal at 16:22.

"[March] is not an easy month for us, and I think you could tell in the first period there were guys that didn't have a lot of jump," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But they willed it out of them just to get through the game."
Abdelkader gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead when he collected a rebound off a shot blocked by Nate Prosser at 3:58 of the first period.
Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for the Red Wings, who are 2-5-1 in their past eight games and have scored two goals or fewer in seven of the past 11.
"When you're scoring one or two a game, it's tough to win in this league," Adbelkader said. "Obviously games are running out but at the same time, we'll have to go out [and] we'll have to play hard each and every game."

Goal of the game

Parise's goal at 10:15 of the second period.

Save of the game

Spurgeon blocked shot from Frans Nielsen while Dubnyk was caught out of his net at 10:07 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Staal's goal at 7:22 of the second period.

They said it

"It's an easy time for frustration to build up and there's nothing wrong with being frustrated now, and [we] should be. If you're not, you probably shouldn't be a competitor. We'll have to regroup tomorrow and understand there's not one thing we can do about it except learn from it and be better on Tuesday [at the Boston Bruins] and find a way to win. Winning games is important, and we've got to find a way to win Tuesday." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"A win helps, there's no question. It's a little bit of a step back on the road trip [with back-to-back losses], but it was good we were able to rebound after the first period [tonight] and just play a little better than we had been." -- Wild forward Zach Parise

Need to know

Detroit is 1-3-0 on its five-game road trip. … Wild forward Nino Niederreiter got his 100th career assist and 200th NHL point. … Staal has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in the past eight games. His 34 goals are the most since he had 40 with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2008-09. … Granlund has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past seven games. … Zucker has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past nine games.

What's next

Red Wings: At the Boston Bruins on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS, NESN, NHL.TV)
Wild:Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-CR, NHL.TV)