Devan Dubnyk Defeats Chicago Blackhawks Again!

Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Minnesota Wild in their last home game of the regular season which is good news if you like playoff hockey. Both teams could use the 2 points so the play was expected to be spirited and this is how things turned out on Tuesday night!

FIRST PERIOD

Joel Quenneville’s favorite thing to say during his interview from the bench is pace and that is exactly what the first period was all about.. Pace, Pace, Pace.  It was a very fast period, but there wasn’t a whole lot of scoring chances by either team.  The Blackhawks best chance came when Marcus Kruger passed from behind the Wild net and found Joakim Nordstrom but Devan Dubnyk stopped the good chance.

Zack Parise had the best Wild opportunity, but after beating Corey Crawford he only found the goal post which kept the game scoreless which was the score after one period, with the Chicago Blackhawks leading the shot chart 8-6 after 20 minutes of action.

SECOND PERIOD

The second period was a carbon copy of the first period with a lot of puck possession but not a whole lot of scoring chances.  The Pace may be fast but the defenses were well set up all night long through 2 periods.  The Blackhawks got one puck past Dubnyk when Sharp grabbed a rebound, but the Wild defense cleared it out of harms way before the first goal of the game could be tallied.

The Minnesota had a couple of chances during the period, but Corey Crawford was on top of his game tonight with not much action in front of him.  The one weapon the Wild kept going to the well often was the stretch pass.  The Wild hit on a couple stretch passes but it was #50 coming up with the stops when needed.  The Hawks after two periods lead 23-15 on the shot chart, but with no score this game could go either way in the final frame.

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THIRD PERIOD 

The Chicago Blackhawks came out and blitzed Devan Dubnyk and he began to let rebound leak out, but the Andrew Shaw mainly couldn’t capitalize on any of the rebounds.  The Hawks had some good chances in the first half of the period, but the period started to turn with Corey Crawford making some huge save to keep the game scoreless.  After two magical saves by Crawford, another Michal Rozsival defensive miscue led to a Wild goal by Mikael Granlund and just like that the juice was out of the United Center.

Jason Zucker shortly thereafter scored on a 2 on 1 to give the Wild a huge 2-0 lead. The Hawks couldn’t muster very dangerous scoring chances until Bryan Bickell could score with the net empty with less than 2 minutes to play, but it would be too little too late for the Chicago Blackhawks.

-The Wild clinched a playoff spot with the victory.

-Dubnyk should be a Hart and Vezina Trophy candidate

-Thurday the Hawks get the St. Louis Blues

-The Hawks cost themselves a lot in the home ice department with this loss.

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