Over fifty thousand people looked on at the Wild and Blackhawks.
The Chicago Blackhawks have spent four games playing outdoors, maybe they want to ask the NHL to stop giving them such a privilege. In their first outdoor experience, the Minnesota Wild came away with the 6-1 victory.
In the style of Chicago politics, the Wild voted to score early and often. All three periods featured a home team goal in first three-and-a-half minutes.
Matt Dumba stuffed a rebound home 3:25 into the game, igniting most of the 50,426 in attendance. Credit goes to Ryan Carter who had a breakaway attempt and the initial rebound thwarted away by Corey Crawford.
The 2:26 mark of the second period featured the prettiest goal of the afternoon. Nino Niederreiter finished a tic-tac-toe with help from Erik Haula and Jason Pominville. The third period early scoring came off the stick of Ryan Carter at 2:25.
Chicago spent large amounts of the game on the penalty kill. Both squads came into the game average just under seven minutes per game, and those averages were blown away by the midpoint of the game. The Hawks amassed 27 minutes, including Michal Rozsival getting assessed a five minute and game misconduct penalty for a questionable interference in the second period.
“I don’t think it was a major, it was a spontaneous play as a defenseman in that situation, “said Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville. “He just played the man, unfortunately the player was injured.”
Another positive for Minnesota was their power play which came into the game on fire. For the 11th time in 13 games it lit the lamp. Thomas Vanek-appering in his third outdoor game-tipped in his 17th goal of the season, the eventual game winning tally. Pominville and former Golden Gopher Mike Reilly picked up the assists.
“We’re gaining a little bit more speed up top, you know, off our flanks, and we’re looking to shoot,” raved Wild interim head coach John Torchetti. “But we’re looking to get more numbers inside of their numbers. That’s the number one thing.”
Wild forward Eric Haula
Pominville finished his record-tying three-point day with his ninth goal of the season 10:26 into the middle frame. Niederreiter delivered a perfect pass from the corner right to his line-mate’s stick.
The game’s final goal never went into the net. Another Gopher product, Haula was on a breakaway and taken down. The Blackhawks had pulled the goalie, thus instead of a penalty shot, a goal was awarded, giving him a three point game.
“Torch said that will be the easiest goal I’ll ever score and I’ll take it,” said Haula.
The lone Blackhawks tally came from NHL leading scorer Patrick Kane. Though it barely mattered in the game’s outcome, Kane’s 35th of the season was skillful. The Buffalo native shot the puck from the goal line, nearly parallel to the net.
It has been no secret the Blackhawks have been through the outdoor a record number of times. Some of the players may be getting a touch of outdoor fatigue.
“I guess you could maybe look at it that way and maybe a first game for a lot of those guys,” said Hawks captain Jonathan Toews. “They are playing with a lot of desperation and we knew we had to match that and we didn‘t quite do it.”
Follow Adam on Twitter @Adam_PHN and you can always reach him at adam.minnick@prohockeynews.com
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