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Blackhawks Manage to Grab A Point Against Wild

Written by: EricC on 10th January 2010

You can’t win them all, and if you’re not going to win, it’s nice to pull out at least one point. The Chicago Blackhawks managed to do just that, going into a Shoot Out with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night. Chicago still leads the NHL in points, having won nearly 69% of their games, thus far. The most disappointing part of this loss was that the Hawks had a comfortable four goal lead at one point, and lost it when Minnesota put four goals in during the third period.

Less than a minute and a half into the game, Patrick Sharp gave the Blackhawks an early lead. Unfortunately, the Wild tied it up only a couple of minutes later. Half way through the period, Jonathan Toews gave Chicago the lead again, with an assist from Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. With a little over five minutes left in the period, Kris Versteeg put in the third rebound after Dustin Byfuglien and John Madden’s shots got deflected.

During the tenth minute of the second period, Troy Brouwer grabbed a Power Play goal, with another assist going to Kane. Before the period could come to an end, Marian Hossa got his fifth goal in his last four games. In fact, it was a Short Handed goal, making it his second Short Handed goal of the season; the first came in his debut game against the San Jose Sharks.

It appeared that the Hawks had this game in the bag, but everything began to unravel in the final period. Between 6:44 and 8:49, the Wild put in three goals, one of them being during a Power Play. With the game only a one goal difference, Chicago fought hard to end the game in regulation time. Unfortunately, with about a minute and a half left in the game, Minnesota made the tying goal, sending the game into Over Time.

The Wild had two shots and the Blackhawks had four, but neither put anything in during Over Time. After an eight round Shoot Out, the Wild emerged victorious, giving Chicago their first loss in 2010.

Cristobal Huet played great in the first two periods, making 11 saves and only letting one goal in. However, something happened in the third period that added only three saves, and four goal allowed. Huet managed to make several very nice saves in the Shoot Out.

The Blackhawks play again Tonight, January 10, against the Anaheim Ducks. Chicago downed the Ducks 5-2 exactly a week ago, so hopefully they can do it again. The puck will drop at 6:00 P.M. CT.