Blackhawks finally take down the Wild in regulation

Ding dong, the witch is dead! The Minnesota Wild’s 19-game point streak against the Chicago Blackhawks is finally over. John Buccigross won’t get to say it over and over anymore, and I don’t have to mention it in every game preview between these two teams. The Blackhawks’ 2-1 win tonight was their first regulation win against the Wild since December 2019, and their first win in St. Paul since November 2017.

The Blackhawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Ilya Mikheyev and Connor Bedard. Minnesota scored late in the second period, but unlike the last game at the Grand Casino Arena, they made this lead stick for a big victory.

The biggest sequence of the game came about six minutes into the third period. The Wild got a two-man advantage for 1:35 after Andre Burakovsky was guilty of a high stick and Ryan Greene was called for tripping. The Blackhawks were able to kill it off, with some help from Matt Boldy and Vladimir Tarasenko hitting the post. Minnesota used its timeout midway through the power play to keep its top unit on for the whole time, but could not get the equalizer.

“Ultimately, we played three pretty good games against them prior to this one,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We know they are a great team, always really well coached. So, I think the fact that we’ve played them hard each game and to come out with two points on the positive side is a good thing for us.”

Blackhawks Flip First-Period Script

The last two first periods the Blackhawks played were miserable. At 5-on-5 against the Vegas Golden Knights and the Wild, they were outscored 4-0, outshot 23-10, outchanced 25-8, and gave up 15 high-danger chances while only producing three.

Tonight’s game looked like more of the same for the first few minutes. Spencer Knight had to be sharp early, as the Wild dictated play for the first half of the frame. Then Ryan Hartman took a slashing penalty at 9:51, and the ice tilted in the Blackhawks' favor. Although they didn’t score, they produced seven shot attempts, four shots on goal, and four scoring chances during the two minutes.

When the game returned to full strength, the Blackhawks had their mojo working and eventually got rewarded with the game’s opening goal by Ilya Mikheyev.

They finished the frame with big advantages in shot attempts (23-11), scoring chances (14-2), and high-danger scoring chances (7-2).

“The last game, we thought the first half wasn’t very good,” Blashill said. "This was a more consistent effort, with push back and forth. In the end, we defended the good ice really well. There were times we bent, but didn’t break. That’s something we’ve got to continue to do a better job of. I think if you do that, you’re going to put yourself in a position to win hockey games.”

Louis Crevier Stands Tall

Louis Creiver created a lot of buzz on Tuesday night by scoring the hardest goal in the NHL this season at 102.54 miles per hour. He also had an assist for his fourth multi-point game of the season. Not bad for a guy who had seven points in his first 56 NHL games heading into the year.

“He’s been a good player for us all year,” Blashill said about Crevier. “His confidence has certainly grown. Where I see it the most is when he’s breaking the puck out well. He’s taking that extra split to make sure he has a tape-to-tape, and if not, to put it in a safe spot. Using that size to take that extra split second. He’s realizing what a weapon his shot is. Whether it’s scoring a goal or creating chaos because it’s hard to control the rebound when you’re a goalie when it’s coming that hard at you.”

Crevier was far less active in the offensive zone tonight, but he still had four shot attempts to go with his hit and two blocked shots. He did a lot of heavy lifting on the penalty kill, with 3:13 of shorthanded ice time, including most of that extended 5-on-3 advantage in the third period. His role on the penalty kill has expanded since the trade of Connor Murphy earlier this month. At 5-on-5, the Wild only had two scoring chances with Crevier on the ice.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Bedard loves playing against the Wild. His second-period breakaway goal ended up being his team-high fifth game-winner of the season. His 12 career game-winning goals are the most in team history for a player 20 or under, passing Jonathan Toews and Bobby Hull. He led the team in time on ice at 23:54. He had six shots on goal, 11 shot attempts, and three individual scoring chances. He is taking over games on a nightly basis. He was also on the ice when the Wild pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker. That’s something you never would have seen in his first two seasons.

• The third period was so impressive. Instead of playing on their heels, trying not to lose, the Blackhawks kept pressuring the Wild, looking for another goal. At 5-on-5, they had an 8-2 scoring chance advantage in the third period, while leading 11-8 in shot attempts. That is what Blashill has been talking about when he says learning how to close out a game. This was the biggest win of the season for this young group, as they finally figured out how to beat the Wild after coming so close in the previous three games.

• Blashill returned to his seven-defensemen lineup, which allowed him to keep his blueliners’ ice time down. Alex Vlasic (21:46) and Artyom Levshunov (20:21) were the only two defenders to play over 20 minutes, while Ethan Del Mastro had only 6:48 of ice time. Speaking of Vlasic, he made a tremendous play to keep the puck out of his net in the closing seconds of the game.

• It’s not very often that the power play goes 0-for-3, and yet you can rave about it after the game. The Blackhawks looked as dangerous as ever on the man advantage tonight. In their six minutes of power-play time, the Blackhawks produced 16 shot attempts, nine shots on goal, and eight scoring chances. They literally did everything except score.

• Only 8:37 time on ice for Nick Lardis tonight. What are we doing? I would imagine that when Sacha Boisvert makes his debut, he’ll slot in on Lardis’ line with Landon Slaggert. Hopefully, this increases his ice time. With Anton Frondell coming over at some point, too, the veterans who are producing will need to take a back seat to the future.