Chicago Blackhawks beat Minnesota Wild 3-1
Corey Crawford made 33 saves to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 3-1 win against Minnesota Wild at United Centre on Wednesday night.
Brian Campbell and Troy Brouwer both tallied power-play goals for Chicago, who returned to the Windy City on the back of a 2-2-2 road trip. Jake Dowell scored another goal while Dave Bolland earned three assists in the win.
Matt Cullen notched a power-play goal and Jose Theodore turned away 34 shots for Minnesota, who had a three-game win streak halted by the Vancouver Canucks in their last game.
Campbell got the scoring started to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead with seven minutes left in the opening frame, as he unloaded a slap shot from the high slot to beat Theodore. The Wild outshot Chicago 17-10 in the first stanza and got two power play chances,
but Chicago still carried the one-goal advantage into the second period. Crawford kept his side in the game by making a couple of nice saves on Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen and Cal Clutterbuck.
Minnesota’s streaking penalty killers dominated play in the middle session and answered by helping Theodore shut out Chicago during eight power-play minutes. Minnesota forward Martin Havlat said after the game, “We had some chances to win the game. Those
eight, 10 minutes in the second period was very important.”
Chicago also got numerous chances in the middle period but failed to take advantage. Marian Hossa had an open net to score but Cam Barker tied up his stick. Theodore also stopped Bryan Bickell’s shot with his pad. Cullen finally put Minnesota on the board
to tie the game at 1-1 just seven minutes into the final session. The goal was set up by Rookie Jared Spurgeon, who sent a sharp pass to Cullen, who then stuffed the puck home for his 11th goal of the 2010-11 season.
Chicago however, managed to restore their lead at 2-1, just 34 seconds later. The goal came when Brouwer held the puck below the right circle and slipped a pass that deflected in off the stick of Wild defenseman Greg Zanon. Jake Dowell then capped the scoring
at 3-1 with an empty-net goal with 59 seconds left in the game.
Chicago Assistant Coach Mike Haviland, who was presented with a game puck after the match, praised the performance of his players. He said, “They know what’s at stake and what this is all about. I was just proud to see those guys step up like they did.”
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