Blackhawks answer the bell, blow past Wild

While alarm bells might be sounding in Minnesota, it was clear from the get-go Sunday that the Chicago Blackhawks had absolutely no problem springing forward.

In a game that felt like it started at 10:35 a.m. thanks to the time change, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin made it look like a bewildered Devan Dubnyk still was asleep by scoring twice in the first five minutes, and the Hawks went on to claim a huge 4-2 victory at the United Center.

Dubnyk, the league leader in save percentage coming in, was pulled after facing just those 2 shots.

Corey Crawford made 42 saves to claim his 27th victory, and Trevor van Riemsdyk and Marian Hossa also scored as the Hawks pulled within 1 point of first-place Minnesota.

"He was terrific," Quenneville said of Crawford. "We had a fortunate start, couple of quick goals."

With the Hawks having beaten the Wild three straight times, it's fair to wonder if they have planted a big, fat seed of doubt in the heads of every single Minnesota player and coach. That's especially true of Dubnyk, who has allowed 8 goals in his last three games against the Hawks.

Kane opened the scoring 51 seconds into the game when he beat Dubnyk after a pass from Panarin bounced off both of Marco Scandella's skates. It was Kane's 30th goal.

Panarin made it 2-0 at 4:38 of the first when he whistled a one-timer over Dubnyk's right shoulder. Kane notched an assist on the play, giving him 73 points.

At that point, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau decided to pull Dubnyk in favor of Darcy Kuemper.

"I always want to stay in and want to battle," Dubnyk said. "That's completely up to him to decide what he wants to do."

Minnesota battled back but never managed to tie the game.

"I thought we slowed down as the game progressed there," Quenneville said. "Crow made some great saves and big saves in that second period."

The biggest of those 20 stops came when Crawford lunged to his left and barely got his leg on an in-close attempt by Eric Staal.

"On that one, I'm just trying to shuffle quick and try and get a push and stretch out," Crawford said. "Try and get your pad as close as you can to his stick. So that way the only way he can go is right in your pad, right?"

Crawford also stood tall when he prevented Erik Haula from scoring on a breakaway with 13:20 left in the game.

Van Riemsdyk's goal made it 3-1 and came seconds after Ryan White was going to be called for tripping Jordin Tootoo. While White complained, van Riemsdyk stormed in and put home his fifth goal after taking a pass from Marcus Kruger.

"It would have been pretty tough to miss that," said van Riemsdyk, who has scored in back-to-back games.

The Hawks know it wasn't a perfect game and that Crawford probably saved the day.

Still, they are right on the Wild's heels with less than a month to go in the regular season.

"Huge game by Crow tonight," Kane said. "But overall I think we want to be better as a team. We have 14 games left to make sure that happens (and) feel good about ourselves going into the playoffs."

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