Blackhawks sweep Wild, return to West finals
The Chicago Blackhawks swept the Minnesota Wild. (USATSI)
Every night during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Eye On Hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters will bring you up to speed everything you need to know about all of the action around the NHL. Here’s what you need to know about Blackhawks vs. Wild, Game 4.
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Minnesota Wild, Game 4
Blackhawks 4, Wild 3 | Blackhawks win series 4-0
Game 4 in a nutshell: The Chicago Blackhawks completed their sweep of the Minnesota Wild with a 4-3 win on Thursday night, advancing to the Western Conference Final for the third year in a row and the fifth time in seven years. Corey Crawford was solid in net, Patrick Kane scored another big goal, and the Blackhawks eliminated the Wild in the playoffs. Pretty much business as usual in the NHL. But it certainly wasn’t easy for the Blackhawks in the end.
Leading 4-1 with three minutes to play in regulation, the Blackhawks allowed the Wild to score a pair of goals to close to within one, and then took a too many on the ice penalty to give them a power play with 14 seconds to play. Minnesota ended up getting two great looks in the final seconds but was unable to score the tying goal.
Turning point: His team was already winning at this point, but Patrick Kane’s goal with just a little more than six minutes to play to give the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead turned out to be a massive goal given Minnesota’s push at the end of the third period. Kane was a one-man highlight reel in the series, scoring at least one goal in all four games and extending his current postseason goal scoring streak to five games. His seven goals this postseason are the second most in the league, trailing only the eight scored by Tampa Bay Lightning forward Tyler Johnson.
Three things we learned
1. The Wild have to find a way to avoid the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs. Three years in a row they have played. Three years in a row they have lost to them. And not only have they been eliminated by the Blackhawks in three consecutive postseasons, they have only won three of the 15 games.
2. Losing Michal Rozsival is actually a pretty big deal for the Blackhawks. He may not be the player he once was, but he is still a capable third-pairing defensemen for a Blackhawks team that was basically only playing with five defensemen to begin with given how little ice time Kimmo Timonen has been getting. The Blackhawks better hope the Anaheim Ducks vs. Calgary Flames series goes six or seven games because their top-four on defense could use a little bit of break before the Conference Final begins.
3. The magic ran out for the Minnesota Wild. Or maybe their most important players were simply exhausted. Devan Dubnyk, after helping to carry the Wild to the postseason with an incredible second half performance, did not have a good series, while Ryan Suter also had his share of struggles defensively. Given the workload those two had down the stretch (Dubnyk starting literally every game between Jan. 14 and April 8, and Suter playing nearly 30 minutes per night over 77 regular season games — for the second year in a row! — and 27 minutes per night over 10 playoff games) it probably should not be a surprise.
Video of the game: Thomas Vanek had a miserable postseason for the Wild, and nothing sums it up better than getting stopped by Corey Crawford on a breakaway. This was also the play Rozisval was injured.
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