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 The Wild were desperate to get their game back on track after having
lost six of their previous seven games. They had also struggled on
the road and entered Tuesday having dropped their last three road
contests.
The Wild turned all that around Tuesday and did so against a
difficult opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks, while in a difficult
road environment. The Wild scored the lone third-period goal and
pulled out a 2-1 road win over the Blackhawks at the United Center.
With the game tied 1-1, Wild defenseman Ryan Suter scored the
game-winning goal when he stuffed the puck into the net after
Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford had made an initial save on
Wild forward Mikael Granlund at 12:04 of the third period.
"That's a real good response from our group," said Wild coach Mike
Yeo, whose team improved to 12-7-4 on the season. "You're nervous
because you're coming in here against that team, and you can play a
good game and do a lot of things and potentially things might not go
your way.
"I liked the way we stayed with it. I think as well as we have in a
long time we just stayed with the game. Stayed patient in our game.
We kept defending well. Obviously that's a group they're going to
find a way to get some looks. But I thought we did a good job."
Wild forward Jason Pominville opened the game's scoring at 4:09 of
the first period. He gathered the puck behind the Blackhawks' net
and wrapped it around into the goal just beating Crawford.
Pominville has scored in the last two games after going goalless in
his first 21 games of the season.
The Blackhawks (13-9-3) responded in the second period, and it was
no surprise who provided the offensive spark. Forward Patrick Kane
tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal at 5:21 of the second
period. Kane received a pass from defenseman Duncan Keith in the
right circle and shot the puck through Wild goaltender Devan
Dubnyk's legs.
Kane's goal extended his career-high points streak to 20 games and
made him the first player in the last five years to record a 20-game
points streak, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Sidney Crosby was
the last player to do so when he had a 25-game points streak during
the 2010-11 season. Kane has 15 goals and 38 points on the season.
From there, the Blackhawks didn't beat Dubnyk again. He finished
with 30 saves, including 12 in the third period, to preserve the
victory. Like the team, he hadn't been at his best in recent games
and had allowed three-plus goals in five of his previous six starts.
"It's huge just to get back in the win column and play a really
solid game," Dubnyk said. "It's easy to start to look at the end
result of the game when you've lost a few in the last little while.
I think we did a good job tonight of not doing that and just keeping
it as small as we could."
Crawford gave the Blackhawks a chance throughout the evening. He
stopped 34 of 36 shots. He had won four of his previous five starts.
[to top of second column] |
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was unhappy with his team's
offensive zone time. He didn't feel like the Blackhawks had enough
of it.
"No, we haven't had as much as we'd like, you know, that strength in
the puck area, protecting the puck, hard going to the net, first to
pucks, relentless with our sticks in the puck area, battle area,"
Quenneville said. "That's where we've been spending time and try to
control the game in that area, making them defend, and (there
hasn't) been enough of that."
The Blackhawks played in their first home game since Nov. 15. They
had been on a six-game road trip.
Overall, Keith thought it wasn't just one area where the Blackhawks
needed to be better.
"There's different things throughout the game," Keith said. "At the
end of the day, I think they probably came ready to play a little
better than we did and outworked us in certain areas. We can look at
all different things, but we could've been better."
Granlund recorded the primary assist on both of the Wild's goals.
Forward Zach Parise and defenseman Jared Spurgeon also had assists
for the Wild.
The Blackhawks were 1-for-3 on the power play, and the Wild were
0-for-4. The Wild are 0-for-7 on the power play in their last three
games.
NOTES: Blackhawks F Patrick Kane was named the NHL's No. 1 star for
November. He had eight goals and 15 assists during the month. ... F
Marko Dano was back in the Blackhawks' lineup after being a healthy
scratch against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. ... Wild D Ryan
Suter said after his team's morning skate that he and Minnesota
coach Mike Yeo were on the "same page" as far as Suter playing
alongside fellow left-handed D Jonas Brodin. Suter had previously
questioned Yeo's decision to pair the two lefties. "It's a story
that really shouldn't even be a story," Suter said. ... Wild D Marco
Scandella returned to the lineup after missing the previous five
games with a lower-body injury.
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