Story by
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Wild work overtime in Chicago to snap three-game slump
- Story byPioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
- Wild work overtime in Chicago to snap three-game slump
Losing one of your key veterans before heading out on the road, when you're already mired in a mini-slump, does not sound like a sure-fire route to success.
But on a Tuesday night in the Windy City, the Minnesota Wild made it work, eventually.
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The visitors at the United Center jumped out to a first-period lead and stifled the Blackhawks much of the night, then survived Chicago 's rally with a 4-3 overtime win to snap a three-game winless streak.
Mats Zuccarello scored in overtime, as the Wild improved to 3-0-0 versus Chicago this season, with all three wins needing more than 60 minutes.
For the seventh game this season, the Wild were without do-everything center Joel Eriksson Ek , who missed the one-game trip to Chicago and is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Minnesota recalled forward Hunter Haight from Iowa earlier in the day as a reserve, and inserted Robby Fabbri back into the lineup versus the Blackhawks.
The absence of their second-line center led to some serious lineup juggling by Wild coach John Hynes, who moved rookie Danila Yurov to the top-line center position between Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy . The second unit, at the start, was Ryan Hartman centering Zuccarello and Vladimir Tarasenko .
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"I thought guys did a good job, you know, and I think when you have some injuries and things like that, you like to, you know, try different things," Hynes said. "Particularly, it might be centermen, you know, with Ekky out, left dots, right dots, offensive zone versus D zone, but I thought, in general, the guys did a good job."
Those moves paid off almost immediately, with Hartman opening the scoring via a feed from Kaprizov, then Marcus Johansson doubling the lead 101 seconds later.
After Chicago got one back, Johansson set up Tarasenko's third goal in the past two games as the Wild led 3-1 at the first intermission.
Johansson, who has found points hard to come by of late, also set up the overtime winner.
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"Yeah, it's been a little while, I feel," he said following the three-point night. "I had plenty of chances and I think people know I'm a shoot-first guy always, but they come in waves sometimes. Always frustrating when they don't go in, but it's nice to get kind of a lucky one, a fluke one. Those count too."
As opposed to slow starts in the past trio of games — where the Wild went 0-2-1 — Chicago goalie Spencer Knight faced traffic reminiscent of the Dan Ryan Expressway at rush hour. Minnesota sent 16 shots his way in the opening period and 10 more in the middle frame.
The Wild looked perfectly positioned to hang on for a 3-2 win with less than two minutes left in regulation, despite some drama in the crease. Minnesota starter Filip Gustavsson left the game abruptly with seven minutes left in the third, forcing Jesper Wallstedt to play a little more than three minutes with two saves.
"I had a problem with the gear, and I knew it was going to take longer than the TV timeout, so I just rushed in and got it fixed and was ready to get back out there," Gustavsson said, after finishing with 21 saves. "Wally had some good stops, I heard."
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Once Gustavsson was ready to return, Hynes spoke with the team's goalie coach and made the decision to pull Wallstedt.
With Gustavsson back in the net, the Blackhawks got an offensive break and tied the game with 1:40 on the clock. Minnesota dominated the overtime, trapping the trio of Blackhawks on the ice and wearing them down with puck movement before Zuccarello ended it.
"It's always nice to get a win here. They haven't been easy to come by as of late even though we've played good enough hockey to get them," Zuccarello said. "Today, I thought we played a really good first period, solid second period…and then in the third, we stopped making plays and played a little too easy."
Knight finished with 33 saves for Chicago.
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The Wild and Blackhawks continue their home-and-home series on Thursday night, facing off at 6:30 p.m. at Grand Casino Arena.
