Ohhhhhh! 🤰🏼
Do you hear that? That’s the fat lady singing on the playoff hopes of the once mighty Chicago Blackhawks.
Chicago are no longer the mighty team that they once were and tonight’s 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild in St Paul is confirmation. The dynasty has come to an end!
In front of a season high crowd of 19,227, Minnesota continued to add to their franchise record home point streak, stretching it to 12 (9-0-3) and keeping their playoff hopes alive in the process.
Coming off the embarrassment of losing to the NHL’s last place team in their last outing, Minnesota were always going to come out of the gates fast and they didn’t disappoint their huge home support.
With a 26 year old rookie between the pipes, Chicago were primed for the taking and when Charlie Coyle put one past Jeff Glass in just the 2nd minute of the game, the script was being followed to a tee. Sure, it was banked in off the goaltender’s back from behind the net, but after that playoff goal, they were certainly due some good karma!
Following some questionable and typically slow refereeing, Minnesota were forced to kill an early 1st period 5 on 3 power play. After hitting Nate Prosser behind the net, Chicago’s Lance Bouma had to first deal with Mike Riley and then accepted a now customary beating from Marcus Foligno.
The test was passed with flying colours and the momentum gained soon had Minnesota awarded a power play of their own. A Matt Dumba shot was deflected by the suddenly hot Mikko Koivu in front of the net, for a 2-0 Wild lead heading into the 1st intermission. After going on a 12 game goal drought, this was Koivu’s 2nd PP tally in his last 3.
Chicago tried to assert some sort of push back on Minnesota in the 2nd period, outshooting the home side by a significant margin, but the quality of shots were just not there. Even down on D men, the Wild remained organised and kept shots low quality and from the perimeter. All this meant that the in form Dubnyk wasn’t really tested for his shutout.
Charlie Coyle soon netted his brace, a quality solo carry and shot to beat Glass again. With the scores 3-0 still early in the period, this is where the scoreboard attendant’s night was done.
An uneventful 3rd period saw Minnesota familiarly shut down offensively, but get the job done in front of Big Devan Dubnyk for the shutout.
“We capitalized on our opportunities, and we worked extremely hard in our end clearing guys out in front, clearing rebounds out,” said Devan Dubnyk when asked about the performance in front of him after the game. “It gives me an opportunity to make all the saves, and that’s important.”
Minnesota now continue their 5 game home stand on Wednesday, against the New York Rangers who are in the midst of a fire sale. With the Wild playing for their playoff lives, surely the pattern of alternating win losses won’t continue any further.
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