Detroit hands Wild its second loss in 2 nights

DETROIT – A midgame switchup in lines got the Wild going. But a slow beginning and a key battle lost late were too costly.

After winning six straight and establishing a small comfort zone in the Western Conference playoff picture, the Wild has now lost on back-to-back nights. On Friday at Joe Louis Arena, a battle lost on the wall led to Riley Sheahan's goal 2 minutes, 8 seconds into the third period that put the Red Wings up two goals on the way to a 3-2 victory.

It's never easy for the Wild (38-30-11).

With his team down 2-0 2:32 into the second period, coach John Torchetti switched lines, putting Mikael Granlund on a line with Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise while putting Charlie Coyle at center between Thomas Vanek and Jason Zucker.

The Koivu-Parise-Granlund line clicked; Parise's hustle led to Jonas Brodin's second-period goal, and Granlund pulled the Wild within 3-2 with a nasty wrist shot from the right circle that went in off the far post with a little more than 10 minutes left in the game.

But it wasn't enough.

"We had a couple of penalties that we shouldn't have had," Torchetti said of the first period. "We can't have those, it gives them an opportunity to get momentum. And we didn't do the wall work on that game-winning goal. It's a wall play, we don't box out going to the net. Those are the intangibles we have to clean up.''

And soon. Colorado helped the Wild by losing 4-2 to the Capitals, leaving the Avalanche five points behind the Wild with four games left. The Wild has three remaining.

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The Wild had some early opportunities. But the game's momentum changed quickly. Right after the Wild killed a penalty on Jarret Stoll, Jason Zucker was called for tripping in the Wild's offensive end.

It didn't take long for Detroit to make it 1-0 when Dylan Larkin's shot from the right circle caromed off Ryan Suter and floated to the net. With Sheahan blocking Devan Dubnyk's view, the puck went off his glove high into the net at 12:52. It was the first power-play goal the Wild had allowed in four games.

"We can't take a lazy penalty like that," Torchetti said. 'That's the bottom line.''

Just 2:32 into the second period a Wild turnover was turned quickly into a goal when Sheahan got the puck to Gustav Nyquist behind the net.

Nyquist backhanded it to Tomas Tatar in the right circle, and his bad-angle shot bounded off Dubnyk and in.

"Until they scored their second goal I think we were not on top of our game," Granlund said. "After that we started playing our game again, playing a decent game. But, tonight, that was not enough.''

Parise chased down the rebound of his own shot, got the puck at the left point to Suter, who slid it across to Brodin, who scored his first goal since Nov. 21 at 16:42 of the second.

But Detroit took back control quickly on Sheahan's goal. Thirty seconds before it happened Zucker had lost a battle along the wall, allowing the Red Wings to keep the puck in the Minnesota zone. Ultimately Jonathan Ericsson got a shot on Dubnyk, who made the save. But Sheahan, left alone, gathered in the rebound and scored.

"When you don't get the result you want it's tough to say you played well enough,'' Coyle said. "We did battle, did a better job defensively, I guess. We had more chances on net. That was a tough one there.''