CHICAGO – The Chicago Blackhawks (5-9-1 coming in) have been struggling a bit lately. Due to that fact, the Minnesota Wild presented a high-level challenge on Sunday night. They came in as one of the hottest teams in the league (8-2-0 in their last ten games, 10-2-2 overall coming in).
Whether it was a bit of fatigue on the part of the Wild or the Hawks playing over their head, the game was pretty even early on. Chicago went up 1-0 thanks to a goal scored by Jason Dickinson.
Dickinson showed off incredible patience and a great shot with his goal. Despite not getting an assist on the play, Teuvo Teravainen was a big factor as he forced the turnover along the board which led to the puck finding Dickinson.
There were moments from there where it looked like the Wild didn’t have their legs but they continued to find chances here and there. Petr Mrazek stood tall when he was asked to make a big save. On the other side of the ice, outside of the perfect shot by Dickinson, Filip Gustavsson was sensational as well.
Gustavsson kept his team in it enough to allow them to find a standings point. Kirill Kaprizov found the puck right in front of Petr Mrazek and he made a subtle little pass to Matt Boldy who didn’t miss with his big-time wrist shot.
The game was now tied and eventually headed to overtime. After trading a couple of chances, Taylor Hall forced a turnover which sent the Hawks in the right direction. Seth Jones made a nice pass to Philipp Kurashev who pushed it up the ice.
With Jones now driving the net, Kurashev took a perfect shot and it beat Gustavsson for the winner in overtime. The Hawks had their second home win of the season and first since Opening Night.
Not only did Jason Dickinson score a beautiful goal for the Hawks, but he was incredible on the defensive side of the puck. The work he did against Kirill Kaprizov was as solid as you can ask from a two-way centerman.
Kaprizov came into this game as one of the hottest players in the league and Dickinson mostly shut him down. Kaprizov got the one assist from his great little pass to Boldy but that was his only way of factoring into the final score.
He tends to do a lot more damage than that but the Hawks contained him which is all you can hope to do against a player that good.
No player on the team, however, deserves more praise than Petr Mrazek. The Hawks played well through the first 40 minutes but they slipped a lot in the third period.
19 of Minnesota’s 33 shots came during the final frame. Mrazek stopped all but one. He’s been a force out there this year. To say he’s been wonderful on a subpar defensive team would be an understatement.
Now, the Hawks have a few days off before a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They will take on the Seattle Kraken on Thursday and the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday which will be a nice little challenge for them as they try to build on this win.
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