ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild have won three in a row, but that's not the longest win streak around these parts.
After fending off 35 shots for the first shutout of his NHL career, Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson was almost airtight again on Wednesday to help the Wild dump the Red Wings, 4-1, in front of 18,324 at Xcel Energy Center and secure a career-high fifth consecutive victory.
Gustavsson stopped 16 shots after blanking the Canucks, 3-0, last Saturday and improved to 6-1-1 in his last eight games during his first season as the team's backup.
As for the Wild, they've given up only two goals during their 3-0 run.
Frederick Gaudreau potted a pair of goals for his first career multi-goal game, Matt Dumba added his third of the season and Mats Zuccarello also scored to push his point streak to eight games to create more than enough offense to stymie a Detroit lineup completing a back-to-back and down a player just minutes into the first period.
That's when the Wild's Ryan Reaves crunched Filip Hronek with an open-ice hit, a check that knocked Hronek out of the game.
The rest of the period was quiet for the Red Wings, who went the final 18 minutes, 23 seconds without a shot on goal.
Meanwhile, the Wild snagged the lead on a power-play tally from the second unit when Gaudreau's shot sailed in from the slot at 14:37 for his second goal in as many games.
Captain Jared Spurgeon's assist was his 118th power-play point to tie Zach Parise for the sixth-most in Wild history.
The physicality picked up again in the second period after Reaves leveled Gustav Lindstrom in the corner, took a hit up high from Ben Chiarot and then fought Chiarot. That was the first tussle for the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Reaves since joining the Wild last month in a trade from the Rangers.
Although the Wild didn't capitalize on the ensuing power play from Chiarot's roughing penalty, they did eventually double their advantage at 8:02 when Dumba wound up for a shot that lodged the puck into the back of the net.
The Wild finished 1 for 4 on the power play, and the Red Wings were 0 for 3.
But some of their best pressure against Gustavsson and the Wild came later in the second during a power play.
Not only did Gustavsson get in front of a David Perron one-timer, but Jonas Brodin had a clutch interception and Jake Middleton a key shot block before the Wild returned to full strength.
Detroit finally planted a puck behind Gustavsson with 1:19 to go in the second, a shot from Elmer Soderblom off an end-boards carom. That snapped Gustavsson's shutout streak at 112:40.
But on the very next shift and only 16 seconds later, the Wild responded.
After the Wild nabbed the next faceoff and sent the puck into the Red Wings' zone, Zuccarello peeled off the boards toward the net and hurled a shot from his knee by Magnus Hellberg. The Detroit goalie totaled 18 saves.
That goal was Zuccarello's ninth point during his eight-game point streak, and he's up to 18 points over his last 17 games. The winger also became the fourth Wild player to hit the 10-goal plateau; only Buffalo has more 10-plus goal scorers with five.
Zuccarello's linemate Kirill Kaprizov earned the only assist on the play to extend his point streak on home ice to 10 games. Only Marian Gaborik (14 games in 2007-08) and Jason Pominville (11 in 2014-15) have had longer tears in team history.
Gaudreau wrapped up the scoring on an empty-net tally with 42 seconds left in the third.
