Filip Gustavsson stays impregnable, Frederick Gaudreau scores twice as Wild stop Red Wings 4-1

Falling to the ice and then winding up from one knee for a goal sure looks like what happens when skill meets will.

Or maybe not.

"Just lucky," Mats Zuccarello said. "Nice to see it go in."

Whatever the catalyst, the play was clutch for the Wild, a timely response by Zuccarello to a Red Wings lone goal that helped ignite a 4-1 victory on Wednesday in front of 18,324 at Xcel Energy Center that extended the Wild's win streak to three games.

"That was huge," Matt Dumba said. "Whenever you get scored on, you want to follow it up with a big shift. Those guys took it into their own hands and made it happen."

Only 16 seconds after Detroit cut the Wild's lead in half to 2-1, Zuccarello reinstated the two-goal buffer with 1 minute, 3 seconds remaining in the second period to push his point streak to eight games and slam the door on a potential rally by the Red Wings.

The Wild also received goals from Dumba and Frederick Gaudreau, who scored twice for the first multi-goal game of his career, while backup goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 16 shots to pick up a fifth consecutive victory.

"These guys have played really good now lately, too, with not giving up so many chances," said Gustavsson, who boasts a 1.37 goals-against average and .948 save percentage during his career-best win streak. "So, that helps a lot."

Detroit was completing a back-to-back and down a defenseman just minutes into the first period. That's when the Wild's Ryan Reaves crunched Filip Hronek with an open-ice hit, a check that knocked Hronek out of the game.

"I hope he's OK," Reaves said. "But you gotta know when I'm on ice and definitely don't skate at me like that."

The rest of the period was quiet for the Red Wings, who went the final 18:23 without a shot on goal.

Meanwhile, the Wild snagged the lead on a power-play tally from the second unit when Gaudreau's shot sailed in from the slot at 14:37.

The physicality picked up again in the second period after Reaves leveled Gustav Lindstrom in the corner, took a hit up high from Ben Chiarot and then fought Chiarot. That was the first tussle for the 6-2, 225-pound Reaves since joining the Wild last month in a trade from the Rangers.

Although the Wild didn't capitalize on the ensuing power play from Chiarot's roughing penalty, they did eventually double their advantage at 8:02 when Dumba wound up for a shot that lodged the puck into the back of the net.

"Everyone was so puck-focused," Dumba said. "Just able to walk down Main Street."

Detroit finally planted a puck behind Gustavsson with 1:19 to go in the second, a shot from Elmer Soderblom off an end-boards carom. That snapped Gustavsson's shutout streak at 112:40; he was coming off his first career shutout Saturday at Vancouver.

Cue Zuccarello, whose goal was his ninth point during his eight-game tear. Detroit goalie Magnus Hellberg totaled 18 saves.

"When it's a one-goal game, anything can happen," Gustavsson said. "One shot, one redirection can change everything. So, two goals is always really comfortable."

Zuccarello became the fourth Wild player to hit the 10-goal plateau; only Buffalo has more 10-plus goal scorers with five. Kirill Kaprizov's assist extended his point streak at home to 10 games, and Gaudreau's empty-net tally with 42 seconds left in the third gave him three goals in his past two games.

As for production at the other end of the rink, that's been scarce. During their 3-0 run, the Wild have surrendered just two goals.

They've also won a season-high five straight on home ice and are 9-3 in their past 12 overall.

"We've got two good goalies and we're doing a lot of good things: blocking shots, backchecking, the D is playing well," Zuccarello said. "Just have to stick with it. Even though I don't think we played our best game today, we still get two points out of it. So, we'll take that."