The Blackhawks had their first shot at eliminating the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night. The problem was that they would have to do so in St. Paul where the Wild haven't lost in these playoffs. This game would prove to be a terribly taxing effort for the Hawks.
The Blackhawks jumped out to a lead in the first period and the Wild answered in the second period. That would be all of the scoring in regulation, with both teams going end to end for the entire second half of the game. When all was said and done, the Blackhawks were celebrating, and the Wild were sent packing. Tough, tough series.
- Before the fans were all in their seats, Kris Versteeg, yes THAT Kris Versteeg, beat a Wild defender to the puck deep in the Minnesota zone and threw it towards Peter Regin, who was crashing the net. The puck ping-ponged around and squirted over Bryzgalov and into the net. I still refuse to give Versteeg credit for anything, so I'm going with the ghost of Bill Mosienko
- Peter Regin had his second great game in a row, looking like he had been playing regularly all playoffs. He also made some great defensive plays, saving at least one goal with only an open net behind him. He NEEDS to stay in this lineup.
- About halfway through the OT, the Blackhawks got a fortunate bounce off a dump in and Patrick Kane did what he does. He pulled the puck to his backhand and roofed a shot past Bryzgalov for the game and series winner.
- If not for the effort by Corey Crawford, the Blackhawks were coming home for game 7. He should be arrested for grand larceny.
- I wouldn't have believed it if you told me, but Brookbank and Leddy were each plus 2 on the night.
- In one shift during the second period, we had Oduya save a huge Wild scoring chance, into a Sharp breakaway, into a Fontaine breakaway, finished up by a huge Crawford save. There was little defense played in the second period, as a whole. Play was end to end, and odd man breaks all over.
- The Blackhawks were out shot 30-22 through 60 minutes and 35-27 overall.
- The Hawks were also beaten pretty badly at the faceoff dots, 42% to 58%.
- Once again, fuck NBC and their scheduling. They bent over backwards to accommodate the Penguins and got that shoved right up their ass. Because of this, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks were pushed to CNBC and an 8:00 start.
- Matt Cooke is a steaming pile of rhino dung. He just can't help taking cheap shots at people, so he pulled a Brandon Bollig on Johnny Oduya. The guy is deplorable.
- Erik Haula continued to roast the Blackhawks and completely victimized Johnny Oduya and Nik Hjalmarsson about two and a half minutes into the second period. The puck got chipped past Hammer and Oduya had his head firmly planted up his tuchus, so Haula skated right through both guys and beat Crawford on a breakaway, tying the game at 1.
- It took the Blackhawks almost 13 minutes to get a shot on net in the third period while the Wild had just 5. The outlook was ugly at that point, and it seemed like the Wild were dominating.
2014 Playoff song via HockeeNight:
