Chicago Blackhawks get big win over Wild
Desperately needing a victory if they want to seriously contend for a division title, the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night got all-world goaltending from Corey Crawford and defeated host Minnesota 4-3 in overtime when Jonathan Toews scored a power-play goal with 1:51 remaining.
Ryan Suter, who failed to score on a breakaway with 3:56 left in OT, was called for a holding penalty at 2:30, which gave the Hawks the 4-on-3 advantage.
Toews pounced on a loose puck in front of the net and poked it home for his 11th goal of the season.
The Hawks — who also got goals from Ryan Hartman, Nick Schmaltz and Richard Panik — crept within 5 points of the Wild and snapped Minnesota's eight-game, regular-season winning streak over them.
“It was a huge win,” coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. “We had to win the game to keep us within striking distance. They're on such a roll.”
Backup Darcy Kuemper started in net for Minnesota (35-12-6) because Devan Dubnyk played the night before in a win over Winnipeg. The Hawks hadn't played since Saturday.
“We had some energy and tried to wear them down, but obviously it's a team that works pretty hard,” said Toews, who added 2 assists and has 11 points in the last seven games. “They didn't go away. Nice for us to find that resiliency and find a way to get a power-play goal late in the game.”
Not facing Dubnyk certainly was a big break for the Hawks, and they took advantage by jumping out to a 2-0 lead when Hartman scored at 10:48 of the first period and Schmaltz tapped one into the net off a great feed by Toews 69 seconds into the second.
The Wild, of course, wasn't about to fold and tied things up on second-period goals by Jared Spurgeon at 1:46 and Zach Parise at 7:15. The Hawks challenged that Parise was offside, but the goal stood after a six-plus-minute review. The referees resorted to using cellphones on the ice before finally deteriming there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call.
The Hawks (33-17-5) made it 3-2 when Panik executed a nice back-and-forth move from the side of the net and got the puck past Kuemper for his 12th goal.
Minnesota's Erik Haula knotted things up at 3-3 with just 3:03 left in regulation.
Truth be told, the Hawks were extremely fortunate to be leading after two periods. A plethora of turnovers led to an avalanche of prime scoring chances for Minnesota, but Crawford turned away 17 of the 19 shots he faced in the middle period. He finished with 35 saves in one of his best performances of the season.
“He certainly was huge,” Quenneville said. “He had to make some dangerous plays, couple key ones there in overtime.”
Vinnie Hinostroza returned to the lineup after sitting the last two games and fed Hartman with a perfect pass to open the scoring. It was Hinostroza's eighth assist. Hartman now has 13 goals and has scored in three straight games, while Schmaltz has 3 goals in 10 games since returning from Rockford.
The Hawks will close out their six-game road trip Friday at Winnipeg and Saturday at Edmonton. They will then have six days off before hosting the Oilers on Feb. 18.