The Minnesota Wild seem to have righted the ship in the last few games. On Sunday, they downed the Blackhawks, 4-3, in Chicago after the skills competition.
Matt Boldy hit for a double for the Wild who finished a five-game roadie at 3-1-1.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves in the win.
“We did just enough to give ourselves a chance, enough good things, and we didn’t do as many bad things in order to let that game slip away,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “Yeah, we were happy with the way we played in the third period and held our composure. That was our best period.”
Chicago took a 1-0 lead off a goal from Jake McCabe in the first period.
“Yeah, that’s wild,” Chicago forward Andreas Athanasiou said. “Feel good once you get the lead there (in the third) and just unfortunate bounces, you know, give it right back to them. So it’s something we have to clean up on. We stuck with it for a full 60 (minutes) and came back. Obviously, we had spurts where we have to dial it in a little bit, but there’s a lot of good things to take out of it, and get a good day off tomorrow, come back the day after, and get ready to play.”
Boldy and Mason Shaw replied with goals for a 2-1 lead to the Wild, for SHaw it was his first NHL goal.
“I think I’ll put that one up there for being the most fulfilling of my career to this point,” said Shaw. “This is cliche, but more importantly, it’s nice to enjoy this win. This is an extremely special group here. To cap off a great road trip, I’m glad I could be a part of it.”
Midway through the second period, Jonathan Toews scored for Chicago to tie the game, 2-2.
The Hawks took a 3-2 lead in the middle of the third period off a goal from Athanasiou .
The lead lasted 17 seconds when Boldy picked up his second of the night for a 3-3 tie and force extra time and the skills portion of the affair.
“That happened twice tonight and a few times this year,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “I think it’s just very similar to the last three games, you know, like learning to protect, salvage a point and get to overtime in the Edmonton game (a 6-5 regulation loss on Thursday) and moving to last night and losing in overtime (4-3 at the Buffalo Sabres) is disappointing and a shootout tonight. We have to make sure there’s lessons learned early in the season that don’t carry on through the season.”
Frederick Gaudreau was credited with the deciding goal on penalties.
Alex Stalock made 32 saves in the Hawks loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.