from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

If ever a team needed a result like this one, it was the Red Wings.

Mired in a long and frustrating stretch of losing, the Red Wings surprised the Minnesota Wild Saturday, 5-2.

Tyler Bertuzzi had three goals — his first career hat trick coming in his 100th career game — and Thomas Vanek scored two goals as the Red Wings won for only the third time in the last 16 games (3-10-3).

The Wings (17-23-7) outshot Minnesota 37-19, including 21-2 in the second period, an indication of the Wild’s indifference in this game — and the Wings’ dominance.

“We’ve been playing good hockey, we just hadn’t gotten the results,” Vanek said. “As a group, we’ve been staying positive and saying the right things. If we play like this, as we have been, we’ll get more wins than losses. We just have to keep it up.”

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from Sarah McLellan of the Star Tribune,

Not only was the Wild rested and in a relative groove of late, having secured four wins over its past five games, but the Red Wings were finishing off a back-to-back – in addition to being near the bottom of the standings.

But Detroit didn’t play like it, skating more like a team desperate to wrangle a playoff berth than the Wild.

Afterward, Wild players described how the Red Wings outnumbered them, limited their space and cut through the neutral zone with ease – skating while the Wild looked stuck in the mud.

“We were on our heels all night,” defenseman Ryan Suter said. “Didn't really have much. There wasn't a lot of space out there. We'd make plays and turn pucks over, and it was tough to get anything going."

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