The Minnesota Wild got outshot by a ridiculous margin on Saturday night at the XCel Energy Center, but Josh Harding nearly carried the team to a victory in his first appearance in 568 days in spite of all that.
Despite getting outshot by a 41-14 margin, the Wild managed to find themselves in overtime against the Detroit Red Wings, but Johan Franzen's power play goal at the 4:11 mark of overtime gave Detroit a 3-2 victory over Minnesota.
Minnesota got the first two goals of this one, as Greg Zanon lit the lamp for the first time this year at the 19:48 mark of the first period. It was Zanon's first goal in 136 games, which had been the second-longest goal drought in the NHL behind Mattias Ohlund of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Cal Clutterbuck tacked on a second goal just 16 seconds into the second period, and the Wild appeared to be on their way. The score remained 2-0 until there were just 47.7 seconds left in the second period, when Ian White beat Harding to cut the Wild's lead in half.
Less than four minutes into the third period, Jiri Hudler scored the tying goal for the Red Wings, and the score remained that way until we reached the overtime period. Matt Cullen was called for a questionable tripping penalty halfway through the extra session, and that put the Red Wings on the power play. Franzen then scored the deciding goal on a play where it appeared the puck went into the net off of his skate, but was held up on replay.
The loss was the first one at home this season for the Wild, who are now 2-0-1 at the XCel Energy Center. They have six points thus far, and are in second place in the Northwest Division. The Red Wings move to a perfect 4-0-0 with the victory.
The three stars for the game were as follows:
* - Harding: 38 saves, .927 save percentage
** - Hudler: 1 goal
*** - Clutterbuck - 1 goal