As any Chicago Blackhawks fan knows, the Minnesota Wild own the Hawks. Well, at least they used to.
The Hawks beat the Wild 2-1 in overtime Sunday night – courtesy of Philipp Kurashev’s third-career overtime goal – prevailing over their Central Division nemesis for the first time since Feb. 4, 2020, and snapping a 12-game winless streak in the series. Only the Boston Bruins’ 13-game stranglehold over the San Jose Sharks has lasted more games.
The Hawks say they no longer believe in moral victories, but this actual victory is a morale victory.
Not only did the Hawks get the Wild monkey off their backs, they avoided the same fate from that demoralizing defeat to the Winnipeg Jets, when the Jets tied them with 1 minute, 4 seconds left, and beat them 2-1 in overtime.
This game certainly had that feel.
Jason Dickinson scored the opening goal, and his line with Teuvo Teräväinen and Joey Anderson played a big part in keeping Kirill Kaprizov (two goals and four assists in the previous two games) and the Wild at bay for more than two periods.
But Wild coach John Hynes changed up lines and Minnesota generated a game-high 19 shots on goal in the third. Matt Boldy, playing on Kaprizov’s line with Mats Zuccarello, scored the tying goal with 4 minutes and 31 seconds left and was assisted by both.
Alex Vlasic said, “We just kind of let our foot off the gas a little bit. They were jumbling the lines up and they found something that was working out for them.”
It could’ve been an “uh-oh” moment for the Hawks. But coach Luke Richardson didn’t have to say anything about the Hawks playing on their heels.
“The guys did it on the bench. They knew,” Richardson said. “That’s the veteran presence and the difference this year.”
In overtime, Taylor Hall and Kurashev converged on the Wild’s Jared Spurgeon and separated him from the puck. Seth Jones pounced on it, passed to Kurashev and raced up the ice.
Kurashev glided into the offensive zone, waited for Jones to run interference and fooled Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson with a far-side shot to seal the win.
The usually low-key Kurashev thrust a fist in the air, a swing as big as the smile flashed across his face.
After the game, he seemed less jubilant and other Hawks were similarly subdued. They didn’t seemed all that satisfied with an overtime win that should’ve never gotten to overtime.
“It’s been tough for us all year to play a full 60 minutes,” Kurashev said. “So we’ve got to find a way to, if the game is tight, stay in it and not let teams back in it.
“We got away with it today but we’ve got to learn from it.”
Here are five takeaways from the win.
1. What is the magic formula with Jason Dickinson?
His mates on the third line gradually change, but the results remain the same.
During the road trip, he played with Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev. By Sunday, his linemates were Teräväinen and Anderson.
It doesn’t matter, somehow his line holds opponents’ top lines relatively in check — and that was a particularly tall order against Kaprizov, Marco Rossi and Zuccarello.
Vlasic said that Dickinson, “Joey and Teuvo did a great job tonight, just shutting down that top line. It’s a hard thing to do.”
“I mean, he’s (Kaprizov) one of the hottest guys in the league right now. So for them to be able to do that for us, that was huge.”
Dickinson also can score or help set others (he tied for first on the team with 22 goals and ranked fourth with 35 points). So if one of these offensive-minded lines isn’t all that disciplined defensively, his lines can take advantage.
That was the case on Dickinson’s goal with 3:16 left in the first period.
The Wild were in the defensive zone when Kaprizov fished a puck off the boards and whipped around for a puck to no one. It bounced to Vlasic, who rimmed it around past Jake Middleton and Joel Eriksson Ek, who was under pressure from Teräväinen. The puck found its way to Dickinson, who walked into the slot, hesitated and used Zuccarello as a screen.
“When the other team misses a puck or makes a mistake, they have the ability to score,” Richardson said of Dickinson’s line. ”There’s always been interchangeable pieces there, but Dickinson is the familiar face that’s always there.”
2. Seth Jones turned from goat to (partial) hero.
Late in the third, Jones lost his balance and fell in front of Mrázek. In effect, he inadvertently screened his own goalie. It gave Boldy a big opening for him to strike paydirt.
Jones got a chance to redeem himself in overtime.
When the Hawks turned the puck over in Minnesota’s end, he shot up the middle of the ice and created a dilemma for Gustavsson.
Gustavsson was forced to respect Jones as a threat, but Jones created enough chaos crashing the net that it likely made it difficult to see Kurashev’s angle of attack. Gustavsson guessed wrong and Kurashev beat him far-side.
“Just a good drive by Jonesy,” Kurashev said. “I was able to shoot through the guys and it went in, so it was good.”
3. Petr Mrázek made his biggest saves in the third period.
Not to say it didn’t make critical saves throughout the game, because he did.
“He was really dialed in,” Richardson said, “Definitely the best player on both teams tonight, for sure.”
“It was unbelievable,” Kurashev said of Mrázek’s performance. “He’s the reason why we were still in the game. We’ve got to be better than that for him, but I’m glad we got the win.”
In the third period, the Hawks left him particularly exposed.
In one situation, they had several defenders tied up along the boards trying to recover the puck. If the Wild had come up with the puck, they’d likely have open ice to make a play.
And they did.
Rossi took back-to-back mid-range shots and Jonas Brodin fired from long range in quick succession, but Mrázek denied them all. The Wild got a power play on Foligno’s hooking penalty, and they got another three quality cracks at Mrázek, but to no avail.
The sneaky side-angle shot from Rossi showed that if Mrázek doesn’t have eyes in the back of his head, they’re at least on the side. A big pad save.
All in all, Mrázek made 32 saves, including nine on the penalty kill.
Perhaps Corey Crawford’s rare appearance at the United Center provided a good luck charm.
4. The Hawks’ penalty kill was back in form.
Actually it has been the last three games: The PK hasn’t allowed a goal in the last eight opportunities.
Richardson and assistant coach Kevin Dean wanted to get back to a more aggressive kill, and the unit managed to do it without putting themselves in vulnerable positions.
“The whole game, the penalty kill was outstanding,” Mrázek said. “So that was the key that we got the win tonight.”
5. Will home finally start cooking?
The Hawks’ win was just their second at the United Center in six games.
Last season they found the road particularly vexing. They certainly don’t want to start a similar (more embarrassing) trend at home this season.
“We had a solid road trip and then we came home here with Detroit, lost the game,” Mrázek said. “So we just have to find a way to start winning games at home and get some consistency on that.”
