The Minnesota Wild saved its much-needed best game of the month for last.

Brent Burns scored at 1:38 of overtime to give the host Wild a 3-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks last night.

Burns took a cross-ice pass from Mikko Koivu and beat Evgeni Nabokov over the left shoulder. Owen Nolan also scored in his return to the Minnesota lineup to help the Wild complete a 4-9-1 December that saw them go from first to last in the Northwest Division.

"I think we were in a frustrating situation for a while now and we realize we have to get the boat turned around and we went for it," Nolan said.

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said it was probably the Wild's best game, and was happy it came against one of the NHL's top teams. "We drove at the net," Lemaire said. "We sent pucks there. We got rebounds. We got good opportunities to score there. We made nice little plays."

San Jose, tied with Boston for the NHL lead, lost for just the second time in regulation in 21 games -- and the first time in nine games against Minnesota.

• Stars 4, Devils 2: Loui Eriksson scored Dallas' first short-handed goal of the season and added an empty-netter with 40 seconds left to help the Stars end visiting New Jersey's three-game winning streak.

• Blue Jackets 2, Ducks 0: Steve Mason stopped 27 shots for the shutout and Craig MacDonald scored early in the third as Columbus beat host Anaheim.

• Coyotes 3, Avalanche 1: Peter Mueller scored twice in a 2:05 span in the second period to lift host Phoenix past Colorado. Olli Jokinen also scored and Shane Doan had a pair of assists.

• Hurricanes 3, Thrashers 1: Sergei Samsonov had two goals and an assist to lead host Carolina past Atlanta. Joe Corvo also scored after Samsonov snapped out of a two-goals-in-10-games slump for the Hurricanes.

• Islanders 4, Panthers 2: Mike Comrie scored twice in host New York's three-goal second period in the Islanders' victory. Comrie stretched his goal streak to three games.Winter Classic

• Matchup: Detroit Red Wings vs. Chicago Blackhawks.

• When: 1 p.m. today.

• Where: Wrigley Field.

• TV: WPXI.

• Pictured: Chicago goalie Cristobal Huet shows off his Wrigley Field helmet.