NEWSLETTER
Look, I understand the Wild are pretty comfortable with where they’re at in the playoffs — and don’t blame them for preferring to face Dallas in the first round over Colorado — but the effort they put forward tonight was laughable. The Blackhawks out-shot them 11-8 in the first period and then 22-5 in the second. Twenty-two to five! C’mon, man! And yet… when the dust settled after 60 minutes of hockey despite being grossly out-shot all night, the Wild came back with three late goals in the third period and escaped with an ugly win.
Star 1: Alex Stalock
On the day he was named the Blackhawks’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy, Stalock was as colorful and playful as ever on the ice. He got lucky a few times and the skaters on front of him did a great job suppressing shots (of course, Minnesota didn’t look terribly interested for most of the first two periods), but this is the Stalock we’ve fallen in love with this year. Playing the puck, passing it half-way up the ice… you name it!
Star 2: Anders Bjork
Bjork scored his first goal with the Blackhawks to give Chicago a 2-1 lead in the second period. The marker gives him five points in 11 games since coming to the Blackhawks (with a few games missed because of injury in the middle). That’s a really nice — career best — pace for him; his previous career year was 19 points in 58 games with Boston in 2019-20. Of course for all of the good looking shots he’s put on net this year, it was a whiff that gets him on the board. Through two periods, the line of Bjork, Buddy Robinson and Andreas Athanasiou was dominant: 20-0 shot attempts, 9-0 shots on goal, 9-0 scoring chances and 5-0 high-danger scoring chances. Because… of course.
Star 3: Marcus Johansson
If you’re one of those who was rooting for a Blackhawks loss, Johansson stepped up and did the thing in the third period. He scored a short-handed goal to tie the game at 14 minutes into the third and then finished off a nice give-and-go with Matt Boldy at 16:47 to give the Wild a 3-2 lead. At the time of Minnesota’s third goal, they had fewer shots on goal in 57 minutes than the Blackhawks had in the second period alone.
