ST. PAUL (AP) - The Detroit Red Wings' top-ranked power play vastly outplayed Minnesota's No. 1 penalty-kill unit in a 3-2 victory on Sunday.
The Red Wings scored two power-play goals in the second period, both assisted by Steve Yzerman, to get their 27th road victory of the season, one shy of the NHL record for road victories in a season. New Jersey set the record in 1998-99.
Brendan Shanahan, Henrik Zetterberg and Robert Lang scored for Detroit, which thoroughly dominated the final 40 minutes of action to bounce back from an eyebrow-raising home loss to lowly Chicago on Friday.
The Wings won 11 games in March and are steamrolling toward the playoffs while trying to put some distance between themselves and second-seeded Dallas. Detroit now leads the Stars by 10 points in the race for the best record in the West.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Marian Gaborik scored and Manny Fernandez made 34 saves for the Wild, who had all sorts of problems generating offense after a strong first period against the best team in the league.
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The Wild wasted little time getting on the board, taking a 1-0 lead just 93 seconds into the game.
Mattias Weinhandl grabbed a loose puck on a 3-on-2 rush and flipped an odd-angle wrist shot that fluttered over Manny Legace's right shoulder and caught the upper corner of the net.
It was initially credited to Weinhandl, who would have had just his third goal of the season and first since Dec. 30. But upon review, scoring officials ruled that the puck glanced off of Bouchard before hitting the net.
After Zetterberg tied it in the first on a nice feed from Tomas Holmstrom, his 36th goal of the season, the Red Wings really got going in the second period, outshooting the Wild 20-7 and flexing their considerable muscle with the man advantage.
After a hooking penalty to Andrei Zyuzin, Lang took the puck near the right circle and dished it to Yzerman behind the net. Lang then broke hard to the right, and Yzerman fed him with a perfect pass through the crease. Lang beat Fernandez with a wrist shot high on the glove side for a 2-1 lead.
Shanahan made it 3-1 three minutes later after a questionable tripping call on Mikko Koivu. Yzerman made another beautiful centering pass with 6:32 to go in the second.
The Wild entered the game killing more than 87 percent of the power plays, but Detroit was 2-for-4 on the game.
Gaborik's 34th goal of the season cut the lead to 3-2 with just over 3 minutes to go in the second, but the Wild managed just two shots in the third period to lose for the fourth time in six games.
