Red Wings beat reeling Wild

Zach Parise and the Minnesota Wild know they are in the playoffs.

Now they just need to regain their winning ways.

Andreas Athanasiou scored 1:52 into overtime on a breakaway, lifting the Red Wings to a 3-2 win Sunday over the reeling Wild.

Even though the Wild also lost Saturday, they clinched a spot in the playoffs later in the night when Los Angeles lost to the New York Rangers.

“In the last four years, we’ve been scrambling at the end of the season just to get in,” Parise said.

“Now, it’s almost as if we had such a comfortable lead, we threw it on cruise control for a bit. Now, there’s different parts of our game that are lacking.

“We’ve got to start putting pressure on ourselves and start demanding a little more of ourselves to win some games.”

Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard made the game-winning goal possible by making the last of his 24 saves in overtime.

Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist got the rebound near Howard and made a long pass to set up Athanasiou, who faked out Devan Dubnyk with a move to his backhand before flipping the puck in the net.

“He’s fast and he’s got unreal quick hands at that full speed,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “It’s hard to defend.”

The Wild played well defensively, holding Detroit to just three shots in the third period and 19 overall, but lost for the eighth time in nine games and dropped to 3-10-1 in March.