ST. PAUL, Minn. _ In a game that Matt Dumba missed with a lower-body injury and where Jared Spurgeon was pitch-forked in the face in retaliatory fashion and the Wild's first and third lines were run through a Bingo machine, the Wild got past the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3, Sunday afternoon.
The Wild picked up points for the 29th time in the past 33 games (26-4-3) and scored at least five goals for the 12th time in the past 28 games.
Zach Parise scored two goals, Charlie Coyle had a goal and assist and Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville and Gustav Olofsson each had two assists, the first two points of the rookie defenseman's NHL career.
The Wild scored three power-play goals _ Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and Parise _ for the second time this season. Christian Folin, in the lineup because of Dumba's injury, also scored.
Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves to improve to 24-3-2 in his past 29 starts.
The Wild jumped out to a 2-0 lead with power-play goals 2:46 apart by Granlund and Niederreiter.
Olofsson, playing the power play because Spurgeon replaced the absent Dumba on the first unit, fed Koivu in the right circle. Koivu fired a pass to the far post for Granlund, and he scored his 16th goal off his own rebound. Granlund has a point in 14 of the past 16 games.
Just 72 seconds later, Spurgeon got away with cross-checking Red Wings skilled forward Gustav Nyquist. Upset, Nyquist got up, turned and high-sticked Spurgeon in the face.
The Wild wanted a major power play. Nyquist, who may be in trouble by the NHL, instead was assessed a double minor, which became a two-minute power play after Chris Stewart got dinged for roughing in retaliation.
On the ensuing power play, Koivu sent a goalmouth pass to Niederreiter for his team-leading 19th goal.
Koivu now has 596 points for his career. Nate Prosser, on the power play to replace Spurgeon (who did return), picked up an assist for his first power-play assist since 2013-14 and fifth of his career.
In the second period, coach Bruce Boudreau also fiddled with his first and third lines.
With Eric Staal in a bigtime slump with a goal and four assists in the past 14 games, he was moved to the third line with Erik Haula and Niederreiter. Haula moved from center to left wing and Niederreiter from left wing to right wing.
Coyle moved from first-line right wing to center and Oominville was bumped up to the top line.
The line scramble began right after the Wild couldn't score their third power-play goal in the first 1:36 of the second period, a goal that could have turned a 2-0 lead into 3-0.
The Red Wings, who controlled the even-strength play for large chunks of the middle frame, cut it to 2-1 on Anthony Mantha's 13th goal. He was left all alone in front after Olofsson inexplicably strayed to the point.
With the Wild looking in trouble, Coyle took a bouncing breakout pass from Pominville, flew past a turned-like-a-pretzel Nick Jensen and scored a beautiful breakaway goal on Jared Coreau.
But that much-needed goal again became only a one-goal lead again for Minnesota just 1:25 later when Henrik Zetterberg bunted a rebound past Dubnyk. The goalie had trouble swallowing an odd Xavier Ouellet point shot that skipped on the ice and turned on edge.
Just 3:59 into the third, Pominville, who has 17 points in the past 12 games, stole a pass from Coreau to set up Parise's first of two games. The Red Wings once again took that 4-2 deficit and made it a one-goal deficit, but Folin and Parise converted by game's end.
