Jonathan Toews helps Chicago Blackhawks beat Minnesota Wild 4-2
Jonathan Toews finished with a goal and two assists, as the Chicago Blackhawks cruised to a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild, at the Xcel Energy Centre on Monday night.
Patrick Sharp had a goal and an assist, while Corey Crawford stopped 24-of-26 shots for Chicago, who have won five consecutive games. The Blackhawks are now 7-1-2 in their previous 10 games as they make a final push for a play-off place in a crowded Western
Conference. With this victory, the Blackhawks have 74 points and are tied for fifth spot in the conference standings.
An excited Toews said after the game, "We really feel we're on a hot streak right now. We're taking it one game at a time. It doesn't matter how we get it, just matters we get the win and move on to the next one."
Tomas Kopecky and Marian Hossa both also found the net for Chicago to seal the win.
Martin Havlat tallied a goal and an assist, while Brent Burns also notched a goal for Minnesota, who have lost five of their last eight games. Goalie Niklas Backstrom surrendered four goals on 34 shots in the defeat.
The opening stanza was scoreless. Chicago got on the board just 44 seconds into the second frame when Toews controlled the disc behind the net and sent a pass to Sharp, who blasted a wrist shot from below the right circle that beat the Minnesota net-minder
to make it 1-0.
In the seventh minute of the middle stanza, the Blackhawks doubled their advantage when Kopecky tucked in a rebound from a goal-mouth scramble. Chicago then extended their lead to 3-0, 15 minutes into the middle frame when Toews re-directed Patrick Kane's
pass into the cage to finish off a two-on-one.
Trailing 3-0 after two frames, the Wild got a life line early in the final stanza when Havlat grabbed the puck at the centre ice, went in on a clean breakaway and snapped a fore-hander past Crawford to make it 3-1 inside 45 seconds.
Minnesota however, failed to capitalise on two power-play opportunities later in the final frame. The Wild cut the deficit to 3-2 with less than five minutes to play in the third period when Burns scored from his own rebound.
Less than two minutes later, a delay of the game minor on Kopecky gave Minnesota the man advantage, but Hossa sealed the game with a short-handed goal off a two-on-one rush with less than two minutes remaining.
Despite pulling their goalie in the last minute, the Wild were unable to get any closer.
Minnesota defenceman Brent Burns was disappointed that his side didn’t make the most of the chances they had. He said, "The last two and a half months, we know we're a pretty good hockey team. In the third, we did a lot of good things and we should build
on that."
Tags: