Blackhawks stop 3-game slide with win over Wild

Marian Hossa scored the lone goal in the shootout, and the banged-up Blackhawks stopped a three-game slide with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.

Blackhawks' goaltender Corey Crawford made 25 saves through overtime, and then stopped all three Minnesota attempts in the shootout. Hossa connected on the Blackhawks' second attempt in the tiebreaker by powering a shot through Ilya Bryzgalov.

It was the Blackhawks' first game since coach Joel Quenneville said captain Jonathan Toews would miss the rest of the regular season due to an upper-body injury. The Blackhawks also were without Patrick Kane, another star forward who is expected to miss the rest of the regular season because of a lower-body injury.

The Blackhawks did get Bryan Bickell back from an injury, and he scored a tiebreaking goal in the third period. Ben Smith also scored for the Blackhawks.

Charlie Coyle and Erik Haula scored for Minnesota, which moved five points ahead of Dallas and Phoenix in the battle for two Western Conference wild-card playoff spots. Bryzgalov stopped 24 shots through overtime.

Haula scored his fourth goal on a screened shot with 1:54 left, tying it at 2. He snapped off a shot from the right circle that sailed between the legs of Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson and then deflected in off Crawford's glove.

Coyle scored the only goal of the first on a quirky tip-in.

Jared Spurgeon drifted in from the right point and fired. His shot hit Hjalmarsson's stick, then deflected off the blade of Coyle's stick and flipped over Crawford's glove at 14:19.

Smith tied it at 2:29 of the second with his 11th goal.

Bryzgalov stopped Nick Leddy's low drive from the left point, and then got his left pad in front of Brandon's Saad rebound attempt. Smith popped in the loose puck from a scrum in front.