|
 The heckling did not bother Coyle.
"It's cool," Coyle said with a grin.
So was Coyle's tiebreaking shot. His forehand-to-backhand maneuver
proved to be the difference as the Wild earned a 3-2 shootout win
over Chicago on Sunday night. Minnesota (34-28-11) beat the
Blackhawks for the sixth consecutive regular-season game, including
a 4-0-0 mark this season.
Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter scored for the Wild during
regulation. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk stopped 29 of 31 shots during
regulation and overtime, and he denied all three attempts during the
shootout round by Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin.
Minnesota earned its second shootout victory in as many days.
 "It says a lot," said interim coach John Torchetti, whose team is
battling for one of the final playoff spots in the Western
Conference with nine games remaining in the regular season. "It says
that they want it. Some people are questioning us, that we want it,
but not me. I think we want it."
Chicago (42-24-7) dropped to 2-4-2 in its past eight games. Andrew
Shaw and Richard Panik scored during regulation for the Blackhawks.
Chicago goaltender Scott Darling made 32 saves on 34 shots. Darling
denied Zach Parise during the shootout but was fooled by Coyle, who
also scored in a shootout one day earlier against Carolina.
Coyle has scored on three of five shootout attempts this season.
"(It's) kind of last second sometimes," Coyle said. "You always have
moves in your head, and you're looking for a shot at first if it's
there. But, if not, sometimes it opens up and sometimes you get
lucky."
Chicago fell to 1-2 in shootout contests this season. The Blackhawks
erased a two-goal deficit to force overtime, which gave them one
point in the standings.
"It was a pretty even game for the most part," Blackhawks coach Joel
Quenneville said. "I thought we had a decent start and good comeback
in the last half of the second."
Tensions ran high after Wild defenseman Matt Dumba leveled Kane
early in the third period. Kane had his head down and the puck
between his skates when Dumba drilled him head-on near the blue
line. Panarin drew a roughing minor for retaliating against Dumba.
Kane headed to the locker room for mandatory concussion protocol,
but returned to the game several minutes later. "He's fine,"
Quenneville said of Kane.
[to top of second column] |
After a scoreless first period, Minnesota grabbed a 1-0 lead 50
seconds into the second period. Justin Fontaine carried the puck
behind the Blackhawks' net and flipped a pass toward the slot. Haula
used his right skate to kick the puck to the blade of his stick, and
he released a rising wrist shot for his 11th goal of the season and
his second goal in the past five games.
"I think I got maybe a little bit lucky there that I was able to get
a good shot," Haula said.
Niederreiter scored on a rebound to increase Minnesota's lead to 2-0
with 12:56 remaining in the second period. Darling stopped a
point-blank shot by Jordan Schroeder but could not recover in time
as Niederreiter punched in the loose puck for his 18th goal.
Chicago cut the deficit to 2-1 less than two minutes later when Shaw
fired a wrist shot that trickled between Dubnyk's pads. Shaw snapped
an 11-game scoring drought with the goal.
A wraparound goal by Panik evened the score at 2 with 6:39 to go in
the second period. Panik skated behind the Wild net and slipped a
shot off Dubnyk's left skate for his fourth goal.
"We knew if we kept sticking to our game, we could fight our way
back," Shaw said. "That's exactly what we did. We got pucks deep and
we created offense that way and had bodies going to the net."
NOTES: Blackhawks G Corey Crawford missed his third consecutive game
because of an upper-body injury. Crawford's status is "day-to-day,"
coach Joel Quenneville said. ... Wild LW Thomas Vanek was a healthy
scratch for the second consecutive game. Vanek has 18 goals and 23
assists for 41 points, which is fourth most on the team this season.
... Blackhawks LW Brandon Mashinter was a healthy scratch for the
second game in a row. ... Wild LW Chris Porter returned to the
lineup for the first time in five games. Porter replaced LW Ryan
Carter, who did not play because of an upper-body injury. ...
Blackhawks D Christian Ehrhoff missed his second straight game as a
healthy scratch. ... Wild RW Jason Pominville (upper body) skated
before Sunday's game but missed his sixth straight contest.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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