Minnesota goes #Wild on #Blackhawks, With A 6-1 Win, In #StadiumSeries

The Chicago Blackhawks had a date with the Minnesota Wild in the Stadium Series game today played at TCF Bank Stadium.  Some would say the Blackhawks forgot about that date.  The Wild came in on fire winning their last 3 games after firing, then Head Coach, Mike Yeo, and replacing him with Interim Coach, John Torchetti, who was part of the 2010 Blackhawks Stanley Cup Team.  The Wild destroyed the Blackhawks, 6-0, where the Hawks just had nothing to contribute to the game whatsoever.


It didn't take the Wild long to find the back of the net as they had a breakaway that was stopped...twice, by Corey Crawford, before two Blackhawks skated by the puck, in which left Matt Dumba, completely wide open to bury the next rebound to give the Wild an early, 1-0 lead.  Shortly afterwards, Andrew Desjardins got knocked on his backside with a clean hit, but Phillip Danault took exception to it and drew a penalty.  On that power play, two Wild players were in front of the Hawks net.  Thomas Vanek deflected a Jason Pominville shot past a completely screened Crawford to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead.  Things when settle down after that, but the period would end, 2-0.

In the 2nd, the Wild struck again as some nice passing plays with three Wild players in front of the Hawks net this time, saw Nino Niederreiter deposit a puck beyond the outstretched Crawford for a 3-0 lead.  Half way through the period, a sad display as Crawford struggled to keep two Wild players from spearing at the puck to push it over the line, while Michal Rozsival, Viktor Svedberg, Andrew Shaw, and Artem Anisimov did NOTHING to help Crawford.  Shortly afterwards, Pominville received a pass from Niederreiter in the slot who buried it past Crawford for a 4-0 lead.  Late in the period, a loose puck was played by Jason Tucker, who was then plastered with a shoulder by Rozsival.  Tucker hit the ice hard when his head smacked against it.  Rozsival left with a game misconduct penalty.  The league will review it, but nothing should be done to Rozsival.

Scott Darling came in to relieve Crawford in the 3rd period.  2:25 into the period, it was 5-0, Wild, as Ryan Carter, collected his own rebound and put it beyond Darling.  Patrick Kane finally got the Hawks on the board with 8 minutes remaining, from an impossible angle. to make it 5-1, Wild.  Coach Joel Quenneville decided to pull darling with less than 7 minutes remaining.  a mid-ice pass from Kane was picked off by Erik Haula.  As he strode towards the empty net, his legs suddenly gave way, and a penalty was called on the hawks, which resulted into a free goal for Haula to make it, 6-1.  One would think with the exaggerated play by the Wild today, that Minnesota-alum, Dino Ciccarelli, gave the Wild a pep talk before the game.

Notable Mentions: Not sure if there any.  Michal Rozsival will get his first official hearing from the NHL League office for his hit on Jason Tucker.  There were empty seats throughout the game in "The State of Hockey".  There were 3 occasions where Dino Ciccarelli had to be feeling good on the exaggerations created by the Wild players during the game.  Other than that, it's just another common February loss for our Blackhawks.  Chalk it as a horrible loss, move on to the next game in 3 days.

Three Stars Of The Game
1st - MIN - Erik Haula - (1G 2A) , +3
2nd - MIN - Ryan Carter - (1G 1A), 6 shots
3rd - MIN - Jason Pominville - (1G 2A), +2

Next Game: Thursday, February 25th, Home vs. Nashville Predators, 7PM CT

Previous meetings this year between the two teams:
December 8th, 2015 - Nashville Predators - 1 at Chicago Blackhawks - 4
December 10th, 2015 - Chicago Blackhawks - 1 at Nashville Predators - 5
January 12th, 2016 - Nashville Predators - 2 at Chicago Blackhawks - 3
January 19th, 2016 - Chicago Blackhawks 4 at Nashville Predators - 1

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!