The Blackhawks traveled to Minnesota, Tuesday night, to face the Wild in game three of the second round. The Hawks were looking to take a 3-0 lead, but the Wild had other plans. The first forty minutes seemed like a boring eternity and lulled even the home crowd to sleep. In the third period, the Wild took a quick lead and soon after took a two goal lead. The Blackhawks never recovered and ended up getting shutout 4-0.
- You see it in Mens league, but you rarely see a player turn around and dump the puck back into his own zone during a penalty kill, but Kruger pulled it off in the first period. I love it. Smart play. That's all the good we have, folks.
- It doesn't get much worse than Nick Leddy being scratched in front of family and friends. Obviously it worked out in the end, right?
- Bollig was back...blech
- During a late first period powerplay Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith got crossed up at the Wild blue line and Sharp missed a chance to keep the puck in the zone. All this resulted in Haula getting a breakaway. Keith raced back and was able to annoy Haula enough to get him to not only miss the net, but miss the puck completely
- Saad had several chances in the first two period, and each time made one too many moves.
- I had a good night with predictions. I stated we were due for a Crawford stinker where he, "gives up like 3 or 4 goals on something like 19 or 22 shots". The Wild scored 3 on Crawford with 17 shots. THEN I predicted their PK streak would end. I was off by one PK. Not too shabby. I should go out and grab a very scratch off lottery cards.
- The best Blackhawks chance in the first two periods was a 2-on-1 led my, yes you guessed it, Brandon Bollig. The other player was some guy named Pat Kane and he never saw the puck.
- Early in the third period, Eric Haula was able to slide in behind Kane and Rozsival and was able to chip a saucer pass into the net on Crawford's back door. The miscommunication between Hawks players was just enough to give Haula the room he needed.
- Two and a half minutes after the Haula goal, the Wild took a rare center ice faceoff, made 4 quick passes and Mikael Granlund found himself in a favorable position with Crawford leaning the wrong way. That fast, it was 2-0 Minny
- The Blackhawks night ended with 2:35 left, when an Oduya took a tripping penalty and the Hawks just laid down. Parise stood in front of Crawford and tipped a long shot off the post. The rebound sat just outside the crease and Captain America chipped it in.