Bertuzzi scores first career hat trick to help Wings earn 5-2 win over Wild

A career night from Tyler Bertuzzi helped the Detroit Red Wings earn something positive in an otherwise negative stretch. Bertuzzi scored his first career hat trick to help Detroit earn a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday in Saint Paul, Minn. The Red Wings won for just the second time in 11 games and also cooled off a Wild team that had won four of its previous five games. Detroit dominated, outshooting the Wild by 37-19 margin.

After allowing a goal 13 seconds into the game against Winnipeg on Friday, the Red Wings pulled that trick on the Wild, scoring 24 seconds into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Bertuzzi camped himself near the front of the Minnesota goal and tipped home a shot from the point by Gustav Nyquist. The Wild answered later in the first period, tying the score at 1-1 with 3:00 left in the first on a goal by Luke Kunin, who skated in on a partial breakaway and beat Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard on the stick side. It was Kunin's first goal of the season. The teams started off the second period with a bang, with each scoring in the first minute.

Just 17 seconds into the second, Minnesota took a 2-1 lead on a power-play goal by Nino Niederreiter but Detroit answered 28 seconds later on a goal by Thomas Vanek that tied the score at 2-2. Detroit then took a 3-2 lead with 4:50 left in the second period on another goal by Vanek, who fired home a shot from the top of the faceoff circles. Only 47 seconds into the third period, Bertuzzi netted his second goal of the game, tipping home a shot from the point to give Detroit a 4-2 lead. Bertuzzi then scored his third goal later in the third, walking out in front of the Minnesota goal and lifting a backhand underneath the crossbar to make it 5-2 Red Wings with 11:22 left in the game.