Chicago sweeps Minnesota despite wild Game 4 finish
For the fifth time in the last seven years, the Chicago Blackhawks will play for the Western Conference championship after a sweep of the Minnesota Wild.
But the fourth win wasn’t an easy one.
“It got a little scary there, a little bit,” said captain Jonathan Toews, after Chicago’s 4-3 win over at the Wild on Thursday night.
Chicago saw its 4-1 lead erode to 4-3 after a scrambling rally from Minnesota in the final three minutes of the game, but the Blackhawks hung on thanks to some strong play from goalie Corey Crawford (34 saves).
The Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Brent Seabrook’s shot was deflected by a Wild player and sailed past Devan Dubnyk’s glove at 10:23. It was his third of the playoffs.
It was 2-0 when Andrew Shaw scored on a power play the Blackhawks earned when Marcus Kruger was hooked by Nino Niederreiter moments after Chicago killed a Wild man advantage. A shot by Jonathan Toews was trapped under Nate Prosser; Shaw found the puck and quickly snapped it past Dubnyk at 3:28 of the second.
Erik Huala cut the lead at 6:42 of the second after Crawford gave up a rare bad rebound. That goal came moments after Chicago defenseman Michel Rozsival appeared to badly hurt his ankle.
But then Chicago seemingly put the game away on a Patrick Kane goal at 13:20 of the third period – his seventh of the playoffs, and fifth in the series – and an empty netter for Marian Hossa while the Blackhawks killed a penalty, making it 4-1.
“It’s one of those teams you have to be very patient against,” said Kane. “It helps when you get leads.”
Yet the Wild weren’t dead yet. Jared Spurgeon scored on the power play at 17:42, and then Nino Niederreiter scored an extra-skater goal to make it 4-3.
Was there some magic left for Minny? It appeared that way when Toews rang a shot off the iron on an empty net attempt. But a frantic final minute couldn’t produce an equalizer, and the Wild were eliminated.
“It was a hectic last few minutes, that’s for sure,” said defenseman Brent Seabrook.
The Wild lose to the Blackhawks for the third straight postseason. Toews said this round was all about how Chicago approached the series.
“Coming into this series, to a certain degree, we wanted to be prepared, not take them lightly,” he said, calling it a “spoiler mentality” given how well Minnesota had played through the regular season and in the first round.
Consider the Wild's season spoiled, once again, by their rivals from Chicago.
