Please Take Me Away From Here: Wild 3, Blackhawks 1

Counting down the days until the end of the season.

After allowing a tie-breaking goal in the waning minutes of the third period, the Chicago Blackhawks fell 3-1 to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday in St. Paul.

Only 10 games left before this throwaway season is over for the Blackhawks.

The game was scoreless until Ryan Reaves gave the Wild a 1-0 lead 7:45 into the second period. Reaves stole the puck from a falling Wyatt Kaiser, tried for a wrap around, and the puck bounced off something in front of the net — probably Jason Dickinson — and in.

The Blackhawks tied the game at 1-1 just 75 seconds into the third period after Lukas Reichel skated in on a 2-on-1 rush and snapped a shot that beat Gustavsson far-side.

The Wild regained the lead with 1:11 left in the game off a Ryan Hartman breakaway: he had a couple of good dekes before sliding the puck past a sprawling Alex Stalock.

The Wild added an empty-net goal with 33 seconds remaining, courtesy of Frederick Gaudreau from practically the other side of the rink, making it 3-1 Wild for the final score of the game.

Notes

• Was that first period the most boring one of the entire season? It might have been, and that’s saying something, considering how many boring games the Blackhawks have played this season.
• The second and third periods were much better, though mostly because things got pretty feisty. Murphy, especially, seemed to have gotten under the skin of several Wild players. This isn’t a good group of players for the Blackhawks, but they do try hard.
• Kaiser got his first real feeling of the different weight classes between the NCAA and the NHL on tonight. But, I’m with Richardson: this was pretty textbook holding by Reaves here.

• The refs missed some calls on the Blackhawks, too — especially a few roughing penalties inflicted on Joel Eriksson Ek — so it was at least equal opportunity incompetence.
• That was a pretty goal by Reichel. He has a really good shot, but he does need to shoot more for his goals production to really kick start: he’s been averaging fewer than two shots per game before tonight. Reichel was legitimately one of the best players for the Blackhawks in this game, too.
• Hartman doing his former team a favor by scoring late and helping the Blackhawks stay competitive in the race to the basement for Connor Bedard.
• With Philipp Kurashev out of the lineup, the Blackhawks already shallow center depth is pretty much dried up, but Andreas Athanasiou stepped up to play top-line center and looked pretty good doing so. He’s listed as a center, but he has played wing almost exclusively for years now. Athanasiou did go 0-for-8 at the faceoff dot, though.
• Speaking of Kurashev, it’s unknown how long he’ll be out after leaving the last game against the Washington Capitals with an upper-body injury, but he was seen before the game tonight with his arm in a sling. Not great.
• Let’s end this on a positive note: practically all of Kaiser’s former teammates from Minnesota Duluth were at the game tonight to cheer him on.

Game Charts

Three Stars

1. Ryan Hartman — 1 goal
2. Filip Gustavsson — 0.957 save-percentage
3. Lukas Reichel — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks are back at it on Sunday night, heading home to take on the Vancouver Canucks at the United Center for a 5 p.m. start.