Sunday proved to be a great day to be a former Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey player.
Erik Haula had a goal and two assists, Thomas Vanek had a goal and Mike Reilly had an assist as the Minnesota Wild tore apart the Chicago Blackhawks before 50,426 fans at TCF Bank Stadium in a 6-1 Stadium Series win. Ryan Carter, another Minnesota native that played his college hockey at Minnesota State-Mankato, had a goal and assist.
Minnesota Wild forwards Erik Haula and Ryan Carter after the Stadium Series win over Chicago. Photo by Lonny Goldsmith
“Too many Gophers,” defenseman Ryan Suter, a University of Wisconsin alum, said after the game. “It was fun seeing those guys score. It’s fun seeing anyone on our team score. They were loving it. I think Haulsy was really loving it after the game. It was good to see those guys have fun back where it started for them.”
The Wild have won four straight games since John Torchetti took over as interim head coach last week after Mike Yeo was fired, scoring 21 goals in the process. Torchetti credited the players with the turnaround.
“I think it’s up to them, it’s not me,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. Once you make a commitment as a teammate and your other teammates see you play at that level, then it’s up to myself and then the other players to hold everyone else accountable to that style of play. I want to make sure they keep pushing that and having that attitude and then we want to keep attacking that net whatever chance we get.”
Minnesota interim head coach John Torchetti
Minnesota attacked early and often, wasting no time in all three periods. The Wild scored less than four minutes into first period and less than three minutes into the second and third periods.
The Wild took a 1-0 lead with a play that started in their defensive zone. Jarret Stoll blocked a shot from Andrew Shaw that ricochetted to Justin Fontaine. Fontaine found a streaking Carter who had his shot and rebound saved by Corey Crawford, but Ryan Dumba, trailing the play, beat three Blackhawks to the loose puck which he chipped past Crawford.
The game started to turn chippy when Dumba lined up Andrew Desjardins with a solid check near the blue line in front of the Chicago bench. Phillip Danault took exception with the hit and went after Dumba. Both went off for roughing, although Danault picked up an extra two minutes for interference behind the play.
With 7 seconds left in the power play, Vanek scored to give the Wild a 2-0 lead. Reilly fed Jason Pominville in the right circle, and his shot was redirected by Vanek past a screened Crawford.
In the second period, the Haula-Pominville-Nino Niederreiter line took over.
Pomminville had the puck behind the net but Duncan Keith challenged him and he quickly passed the puck to Haula. Haula threw a pass to Niederreiter, who one-timed a shot past Crawford at 2:26 of the second.
Eight minutes later, Pominville got his goal from Niederreiter and Haula when he rifled a shot that beat Crawford high to the glove side off a backhand feed from Niederreiter out of the corner.
That line combined for eight points on the night, two games after combining for six points in Calgary. Pominville has goals in three straight games.
“I think our line’s been obviously playing with confidence,” Pominville said. “I think at one point I was just thinking too much and not going out there and playing. And I just said ‘go out there and play and have fun’ and that’s what we’ve been doing.
Wild forward Jason Pominville
The game took an unfortunate turn at 15:14 of the second period. Jason Zucker was caught by Michal Rozsival with a high check in open ice. Zucker was helped to his feet and carted away from the rink, while Rozsival earned a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct.
“I don’t think it was a major,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “It was a spontaneous play as a defenseman in that situation. He just played the man, unfortunately the player was injured.
Torchetti said that Zucker hadn’t left the stadium and has an upper-body injury.
In the third period, Carter got his goal knocking his own rebound past Scott Darling, who replaced Crawford to start the third period.
The only question left was would Devan Dubnyk get the shutout. Patrick Kane answered that with a resounding “no,” when he knocked the puck in off Dubnyk with 7:05 left in the game. Kane collected Trevor Van Riemsdyk’s shot that missed the net to Dubnyk’s left and bounced to Kane near the goalline to Dubnyk’s right. He banked it in off the goalie from just above the goalline.
Haula and Jason Pominville tied the NHL outdoor game record with three points, which they share with seven other players.
Haula was named first star, despite his goal not actually going in the net. Haula was credited with an empty net goal after he broke in on an empty goal and was tripped by Kane.
“Torch said that’ll be the easiest goal I’ll ever score,” Haula said. “I’ll take it.”
Follow Lonny on Twitter @lonny_goldsmith and you can always reach him at Lonny.Goldsmith@prohockeynews.com
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