Bertuzzi scores first hat trick in Red Wings win against Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Tyler Bertuzzi scored his first NHL hat trick in his 100th game, and the Detroit Red Wings ended a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

"I think after the second (goal), I kind of felt like maybe I had the touch tonight or whatever it is, I'm in the right spots," Bertuzzi said. "It felt good to get that hat trick. It was a] big win for us to get on the right track here, and that's what we have to play like every night. Keep it simple and in the zone and have a nice [offensive]*
"That was the worst game that we've played since I've been here as coach," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Effort, compete, I don't know where it was. ... I'm really disappointed in tonight's effort."
Thomas Vanek scored twice, and Jimmy Howard made 16 saves for the Red Wings (17-23-7), who won for the second time in their past 11 games (2-7-2).

"I don't think it's a turning point, we have been playing good hockey, we're just not getting the results," Vanek said. "As a group we've been staying positive, saying the right things, but again if we play like this, like we have been, we'll get more wins than losses. We've just got to keep that up."
Each period had a goal scored in its opening minute.
Bertuzzi scored 24 seconds in to the first period, deflecting a shot by Gustav Nyquist for a 1-0 Detroit lead. Kunin scored his first goal of the season on a breakaway at 17:00 to tie it 1-1.
Niederreiter scored on the power play 17 seconds into the second period to make it 2-1, but Vanek answered 28 seconds later to tie it 2-2.
Vanek scored his second of the game to give Detroit a 3-2 lead at 15:10.
Minnesota was outshot 21-2 in the second period.
Bertuzzi scored 47 seconds into the third period and at 8:38 for the 5-2 final. He has 13 goals this season.

They said it

"Tonight, we looked like a good team. I thought last night [in a 4-2 loss at the Winnipeg Jets] we looked like a good team, we just didn't get the results. We've got to stay with it." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"I just don't think we were very good at all. Whether it was shots or no shots, I don't think we were very good. We just didn't execute very well. We didn't win a lot of the battles and they competed harder than we did. You do that in the NHL, you're going to be on the losing end of it pretty much every night. Tonight we were." -- Wild forward Eric Staal

"The reason we're in the spot we are is we don't play well against teams underneath us in the standings. If we played them like we were playing Winnipeg all the time, then we'd be up closer to 60 points than we are where are (fifth in the Central Division with 47 points)." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin had three assists and has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past five games. ... It was Niederreiter's first goal since he scored Dec. 13, when he scored twice in a 5-1 win against the Florida Panthers (12 games played). ... Wild forward Zach Parise had an assist and has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past nine games. ... Minnesota has scored two goals or fewer in nine of their past 13 games. ... Bertuzzi's uncle, Todd Bertuzzi, had five hat tricks (for the Vancouver Canucks) in his 1,159 NHL games.

What's next

Red Wings: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Wild: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)