Chicago Blackhawks fall 3-2 to Wild
After being throughly outplayed in an embarrassing 6-0 loss at Washington on Friday, the Chicago Blackhawks were looking to get the train back on track in a key divisional matchup against Minnesota on Sunday night at the United Center.
For a while, it appeared coach Joel Quenneville's team would indeed vanquish the Wild for the first time in two seasons as Patrick Kane scored twice in the game's first 24:16, but Minnesota found a way to carve out a 3-2 victory.
"The game the other night was kind of like a shock to the system, thinking maybe you're one of the top teams in the league … and we obviously got thoroughly outplayed," Kane said of the blowout loss to the Capitals. "We came back tonight."
They certainly did, putting 35 shots on goal, including a career-high 12 by Kane.
But somehow so did the Wild, which has won eight straight over the Hawks (27-14-5) and owns a 2-point lead in the Central Division with four games in hand.
"To beat this team eight times in a row is really something. I don't understand how you can do it," said Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau, who watched his Ducks fall to the Hawks in the 2015 Western Conference finals. "I wish I'd have had that knowledge a couple years ago."
Minnesota, 28-9-5 overall and 17-1-1 in its last 19 games, tied the game at 2-2 on second-period goals by Nino Niederreiter at 6:23 and Chris Stewart at 11:00.
The Wild took the lead 5:08 into the third period on what Quenneville called a "fortunate bounce" off the boards behind Corey Crawford. Jason Pominville scored into a wide-open net after a Marco Scandella one-timer went just wide of Crawford and squirted right to Pominville.
Bonces like that happen in hockey, but Minnesota's first 2 goals "were like cardinal sins," according to Quenneville.
The first came with Minnesota on the power play. Mikael Granlund and Niederreiter were right in front of Crawford, with Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson off to the side as the puck was shot on net by Jonas Brodin. Crawford made the initial stop, but Niederreiter had no problem burying the rebound.
Less than five minutes later, Ryan Suter zipped a perfect outlet pass out of Minnesota's zone to Jordan Schroeder. Once over the blue line, Schroeder sent a cross-ice pass to Chris Stewart, and Stewart beat Crawford short side to tie the game.
"They've got some point shooters and some guys that have got quick sticks and are around the net," Quenneville said. "I was disappointed with how we played the first 2 goals."
Still, he wasn't disappointed with his team's effort, nor should he be as the Hawks controlled the pace for much of the game and put 30 shots on goal in the first two periods. Minnesota clamped down in the third period, though, allowing just 5 shots.
"It's frustrating," said Artem Anisimov, who assisted on both of Kane's scores. "We just needed to play better and finish these games and play better in the third period in tight games like that against a very good team. Just didn't get it done."