ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jared Spurgeon ended a 33-game scoring drought with two of Minnesota’s three second-period goals, and the Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Friday.
Marco Rossi also scored for Minnesota and Marc-André Fleury, who turned 40 on Thursday, made 20 saves to improve to 5-0-1.
The Wild are 13-0-1 against the Hawks dating to Feb. 4, 2020.
Spurgeon’s long wrist shot from just inside the blue line handcuffed Petr Mrázek late in the second period for a 3-2 lead. Spurgeon’s goals — coming on his 35th birthday — were his first since April 8, 2023, and gave him his eighth career multigoal game.
Ryan Donato scored twice and Mrázek stopped 27 shots for the Hawks (8-13-2), who are tied with the Nashville Predators for the fewest points in the NHL at 18.
Takeaways
Hawks: They have scored first 13 times this season. Only four teams have opened the scoring more: the Wild (15), Anaheim Ducks (14), Carolina Hurricanes (14) and Tampa Bay Lightning (14).
Wild: Fifteen times in the team’s 23 games, Wild goalies have allowed two or fewer goals, best in the NHL. Entering Friday’s game, Minnesota led the NHL with a 2.34 goals-against average and .919 save percentage.
Key moment
Rossi and Spurgeon scored 17 seconds apart midway through the second period — Minnesota’s fastest two goals since scoring 15 seconds apart Dec. 4, 2022 — to tie the game 2-2.
Rossi completed a pretty passing play with Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Johansson before Spurgeon’s shot deflected off a defender’s skate in the crease.
Key stat
Kaprizov played his 300th career game. He has 174 goals and 192 assists for 366 career points.
The only active players who had more points through 300 games are Sidney Crosby (407), Connor McDavid (394), Alex Ovechkin (384) and Evgeni Malkin (371). Only Ovechkin (204) and Auston Matthews (176) had more goals.
Up next
The Hawks host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday at the United Center. The Wild are at home against the Predators on Saturday.