Game 1 - Minnesota @ Chicago 3-4 OT - Fri, May 1 - Hawks Lead 1-0
After the Blackhawks took what appeared to be a commanding lead in the first period of Game 1 of their Western Conference Second Round series against the Wild, they were wilting in the second. Then a rookie's harmless-looking play saved them. Teuvo Teravainen scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal with 59 seconds left in the second period to lift the Blackhawks to a 4-3 victory at United Center. Seconds before Teravainen's goal, the Wild declined to touch the puck in the neutral zone because they would have been whistled for a hand pass. After a delay, Niklas Hjalmarsson played the puck into the Minnesota zone and eventually it came to the Finnish rookie along the left wall. Teravainen, who had not played since Game 2 of the first-round series against the Nashville Predators, flicked a shot toward the net, and Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk missed it. The Blackhawks stormed to a three-goal lead in the first period but gave it back by the midpoint of the second. Dubnyk, who made 31 saves, said he didn't see Teravainen's shot until it was too late. Teravainen's was the lone goal in the final 30 minutes, and it allowed the Blackhawks to continue their postseason dominance of the Wild on home ice and their ability to finish off games this season. Chicago has won seven straight playoff games against Minnesota at United Center over the past three years. After going 25-0-0 in the regular season when leading after two periods, the Blackhawks are 2-0 in the playoffs. Goaltender Corey Crawford allowed three goals in less than 10 minutes in the second period, but he made 30 saves to earn the win in his first start since Game 2 against Nashville. It took Minnesota less than half the second period to erase the three-goal deficit from the first. Jason Zucker scored at 1:21 after nearly scoring seconds earlier. Crawford made a great save to stop a Zucker one-timer and force a faceoff, but the Wild forward didn't miss on another one-timer, this time with the pass coming from Thomas Vanek from along the right wall. Crawford appeared to have a chance to grab the puck near the crease with Minnesota on the power play, but he hesitated and it led to the Wild's second goal at 5:07 of the period. Vanek backhanded the puck back toward the top of the crease, and Zach Parise was there to shovel it into the net. Wild center Mikael Granlund completed the comeback at 9:30. Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith tried to make a short pass from below the goal line to Jonathan Toews, but it never reached him. Instead, Granlund stepped between them, collected the puck and flipped it over Crawford at the near post. The Wild's top line of Granlund, Parise and Jason Pominville, which had six goals and 17 points to lead Minnesota against the St. Louis Blues in the first round, had three points Friday. For 20 minutes, the Blackhawks looked like the same bullies who knocked the Wild out of the playoffs in 2013 and 2014. Brandon Saad scored 75 seconds into the opening period on the first shot of the game. Saad started the rush by knocking the puck away from Granlund in the defensive zone to Marian Hossa. After getting it back from Hossa, Saad flipped the puck past the Wild's Ryan Suter, and then shed the defenseman's attempt to check him before snapping a shot past Dubnyk. Patrick Kane made it 2-0 at 13:11 of the first after another misplay by a Wild defenseman. Brad Richards carried the puck away from a faceoff win in his own end toward the Minnesota blue line and deked past Marco Scandella before feeding Kane for a long-distance one-timer. Marcus Kruger pushed the lead to three goals at 15:15 of the first. The Wild were trying to get the puck out of danger, but Keith's one-handed poke near the left point to Andrew Shaw led to a shot on goal, and Kruger was there at the top of the crease for the rebound. The Blackhawks nearly made it 4-0 when Johnny Oduya's shot grazed off the crossbar, but from that point the Wild took control until the 20-year-old Teravainen provided some unexpected heroics.
Teuvo Teravainen: "I think that wasn't the biggest shot, but sometimes good things happen when I shoot."
Niklas Hjalmarsson: "I thought the way the game developed during the second period, they took over the game in the second totally. They had pretty much everything, and it felt like the game was also slipping away there for a while, but then [Teravainen] scored the huge goal at the end of the period, and we got the momentum back and took care of business in the third."
Devan Dubnyk: "I didn't pick it up until it was about 5-6 feet in front of me. It was just kind of a flash, and that's why I kind of just waved at it and missed it. The way it came up the wall, I didn't see it come off the guy's stick and I didn't pick it up at all, but that's my job. My job is to get out and find a way to find the puck at all times. I didn't do that there and it cost me. It was certainly a disappointing play to give up when we work as hard as we did to come back. It's one play, and you have to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Mikko Koivu: "You want to take all the good things with you and move on and learn from the things we need to do better and start preparing for Game 2. It's a good thing we were able to come back, but at the same time you don't want to fall behind three goals."
Game 2 - Minnesota @ Chicago 1-4 - Sun, May 3 - Hawks Lead 2-0
The stars of the Blackhawks overwhelmed the Wild in Game 2 of this Western Conference Second Round series. Patrick Kane scored twice, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp also had goals and the Blackhawks earned a 4-1 victory at United Center. Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith made excellent plays to set up goals for Chicago, which leads the best-of-7 series 2-0. The Blackhawks have won all eight games in this building against the Wild during the past three Stanley Cup Playoffs. Minnesota was close in Game 1, a 4-3 victory for Chicago, and the Wild felt like they had played well. That was not the case in Game 2, a contest filled with errors for the road team. The Wild have lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since Jan. 11 and 13. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk arrived in a trade from the Coyotes the next day and started his first game for the Wild on Jan. 15. Toews put the Blackhawks on the board first with a shorthanded goal at 12:28 of the second period. Hossa poked the puck past Ryan Suter along the left wall with Minnesota on the power play, and fed Toews near the far post. Dubnyk made the save on Toews' shot, but the puck ticked off the knob of his stick and trickled back and across the goal line before Suter could reach it. It was Toews' fourth goal of the postseason and a seventh assist in eight games for Hossa. For the second straight game, the Wild yielded a goal in the final minute of the second period. Kane had gone behind the Minnesota net to forecheck and was trailing the play. He tried to lift Suter's stick, and Suter's outlet pass ended up in Thomas Vanek's skates. Vanek's pass at the Chicago blue line was off the mark and would have put the Wild offside, and Keith took advantage. He snapped a long diagonal pass to Kane, who was well behind Suter. Kane skated in unmarked and snapped a shot past Dubnyk with 19.9 seconds remaining in the period. It was Kane's second goal in the series and fourth of the playoffs. Keith leads all defensemen with 10 points in the postseason. Rookie defenseman Matt Dumba got one back for the Wild early in the third period with a power-play goal. Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford got a piece of his shot from the right wall, but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was Dumba's second goal of the postseason. Another rookie made the play to set up Chicago's third goal. Teuvo Teravainen chipped the puck off the boards in the neutral zone and into the path of a hard-charging Sharp, who skated in alone and put a shot past Dubnyk to the far side at 7:39. It was Sharp's fourth goal of the playoffs and the second straight game with a point for Teravainen since returning to the lineup. Crawford made 30 saves, including two great ones in the second period when the score was still 1-0. Dubnyk, a Vezina Trophy finalist, finished with 27 saves. He has allowed seven goals in the two games.
Kane added an empty-netter with 2:07 remaining seconds after Dubnyk went to the bench for an extra attacker. He now has 101 points in 101 career Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Patrick Sharp: "It's been a key to the success here the last six or seven years; you've got a bunch of guys that want the puck on their stick in key situations and want to be the guy that scores that goal."
Joel Quenneville: "Huge goal. First one today was going to be a big goal; being shorthanded even accentuates that point. [Hossa] makes a great play there. We get a fortunate break off the shot, but certainly we'll take it. Shorties are deflating one way and great the other way."
Patrick Kane: "It's fun. You hear so much about playoff hockey when you come into the League, it's more intense, it's the best hockey to play. Every game is do or die. They're fun games to play in. I've been fortunate enough to play with some great teammates, where you're getting a lot of good chances. I've had a lot of fun here in my seven years in the playoffs. Right now we're not really worried about numbers. We're worried about taking care of business, getting the wins. We did that twice here at home. We got the job done here."
Mike Yeo: "We didn't make those mistakes. I don't know what team played that game, but it wasn't us tonight. It was 0-0 through the midway point of the game. We were doing some OK things without the puck to keep it at 0-0, but with the puck, like I said, that's not us."
Zach Parise: "Can't happen. Those are backbreakers. You always grow up learning you don't give up a goal in the last minute of a period. Those hurt us the last two games. Things like that, they just can't happen. We can't continue to do that to ourselves."
Game 3 - Chicago @ Minnesota 1-0 - Tue, May 5 - Hawks Lead 3-0
The Blackhawks have struggled to win Game 3 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in recent years, but they found a solution. Not allowing a goal is one way to reverse that trend. Corey Crawford made 30 saves and Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks, who moved within a victory of reaching the Western Conference Final for the third consecutive season with a 1-0 victory against the Wild at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild had several quality chances, but they couldn't get the puck past Crawford. Their frustration grew; groans from the crowd and sticks slamming off the boards near the Minnesota bench became the soundtrack of the final two periods. Minnesota has four goals in three games in this series, and six in the past five postseason games against Crawford dating back to Game 5 last year. Chicago has won all five of those games. Kane scored the lone goal at 14:06 of the first period with the Blackhawks on the power play. Patrick Sharp flubbed a pass in the neutral zone, but Andrew Shaw seized control and connected with Kane, who went in alone on Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk and put a shot between his legs for his sixth goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Kane missed the final seven weeks of the regular season because of a broken clavicle. The original prognosis was he could need up to 12 weeks, but Kane was in the lineup for Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round against the Nashville Predators and is second in the NHL with six goals and 11 points in the postseason. The Wild played like a desperate team for the first six or seven minutes of the first period, but Crawford kept them off the scoreboard. Chicago controlled the tempo from there and created several great chances during the rest of the period. Minnesota's desperation became frustration in the second. Jason Pominville missed the net from the slot. Crawford denied Mikael Granlund on a breakaway. Nino Niederreiter had the puck fall onto his stick at the top of the crease, but he couldn't jam it in. The Wild continued to press for a goal in the third, creating nearly all of the best scoring chances in the period. There were a couple of scrambles near the net, and Crawford had to dive to his right to keep the puck from trickling across the goal line with his blocker to keep the best chance out. At one point, Zach Parise threw the puck into the offensive zone after the Wild were called for offsides, then slammed his stick. The Blackhawks produced more offense to win two games at United Center to start the series. They needed a Teuvo Teravainen goal late in the second period to prevail 4-3 in Game 1 after yielding a three-goal lead earlier in the period. It was not as close in Game 2. Kane scored twice, and the Blackhawks received key contributions from their other star players in a 4-1 victory. Yeo said he's never been in this situation, down 3-0 and trying to avoid a sweep. The Wild are going to need to find some offense to extend the series. Kane has scored as many goals in this series as the Wild, and he's outscored them 3-1 since Game 1.
Corey Crawford: "It's never easy, especially against this team in their building. They came hard the whole night, but our guys stood strong. Especially at the end, we were all together as a unit. Good effort by our [defense]. That was good for myself but as a team too, it was great for us defensively to have no goals in a game."
Patrick Kane: "The puck was bouncing there. I think [Sharp] was trying to come over to me. It got to [Shaw] and I think he said he heard me calling for it, so he just kind of threw it over and I got it and tried to shoot it quickly."
Mike Yeo: "Crawford, he's a star against us. He's (Martin) Brodeur, he's (Patrick) Roy. He's everybody. We've got to find a way to solve that."
Zach Parise: "Frustration that we couldn't score. That's about it. We didn't score one, so I don't think we did enough. There's got to be something more we can do."
Nino Niederreiter: "As of right now, it's definitely frustrating. We had plenty of chances to win this hockey game, I feel that we played a really good game. We played solid and we had enough chances. Now we have to find a way to regroup and we got to win [the] next game."
Game 4 - Chicago @ Minnesota 4-3 - Thu, May 7 - Hawks Lead 4-0
For the fifth time in seven seasons, the Blackhawks will play in the Western Conference Final. For the third time in as many years, the Wild will spend the offseason trying to get over the fact that the Blackhawks ended their Stanley Cup Playoff run. The Blackhawks completed a sweep of the Wild in the Western Conference Second Round with a 4-3 victory in Game 4 on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center. Chicago never trailed in the series, but the clinching game was not without drama. Minnesota scored two goals 51 seconds apart with goaltender Devan Dubnyk pulled and had 87 seconds to try to complete a furious three-goal comeback. The final seconds were frantic, but the ending for the Wild, a solemn handshake line with the Blackhawks, has become too familiar. They have won three Stanley Cup Playoff games in three years against Chicago. Kane, Brent Seabrook, Andrew Shaw, and Marian Hossa scored for the Blackhawks. Goalie Corey Crawford made 34 saves. Chicago became the first team to reach the NHL's final four at least five times in a seven-year span since the Colorado Avalanche did it six times from 1996-2002. The Blackhawks continue to be the best team in the salary-cap era at closing out playoff series.
They are 14-4 in potential series-clinching games since Kane and Jonathan Toews arrived in 2007-08, including 13-2 when it isn't Game 7. Chicago also won for the 30th time this season without a loss (30-0-0) when leading after two periods. Aside from a couple of desperation goals in Game 4 with six attackers on the ice, Minnesota could not find enough offense to topple Chicago. Before those two, Kane had scored as many goals as the Wild in the series. While Chicago's star players were pacing its offense, Minnesota's were frustrated by missed opportunities. Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund each scored his lone goal of the series in Game 1. Jason Pominville's only goal made it 4-2 on Thursday. Vanek and captain Mikko Koivu never scored one. Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter also scored for the Wild on Thursday, and Dubnyk made 21 saves. Dubnyk became the second 2015 Vezina Trophy finalist to lose his award-worthy form against the Blackhawks in these playoffs. He made saves on 100 of 111 shots for a .901 save percentage, well shy of the .936 he had after arriving in a Jan. 14 trade with the Coyotes and making his debut with the Wild the following night. Dubnyk and Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne are two of the three Vezina finalists. They combined for a .906 save percentage against the Blackhawks in the postseason. Michal Rozsival's left leg buckled on him in the second period near the Chicago blue line shortly before Minnesota's first goal. Rozsival was unable to put any weight on his left leg as he was helped off the ice; he did not return. Kane's seven playoff goals are second to the Tampa Bay Lightning's Tyler Johnson (eight), and his 13 points are second to the Anaheim Ducks' Corey Perry (14). The original recovery timeline after he sustained a fractured clavicle Feb. 24 was up to 12 weeks, but he returned in seven.
Patrick Kane: "I think it just shows that we like playing at this time of year. It's the best time of year to play. When you think of the playoffs and going through the whole process of going round by round, and you get a new matchup with a different team every time, it is fun for us, and we get excited. We have great fans at our backs. The weather gets a little nicer. The city of Chicago starts buzzing a little bit. It is just a fun city to play in. I still think there's some areas that I can try to improve a little bit. I play with some great players who have given me some great chances to get some great looks, and it is going in the back of the net."
Patrick Sharp: "It was little more reserved than years past, but guys felt pretty good about it. We appreciate how hard it is to win a playoff series, to beat a team like Minnesota. We're proud of the accomplishment to get out of the division. We think it's a pretty tough division to play in. Ton of enthusiasm going forward. We can't wait to get back in the conference finals and try to win another series."
Joel Quenneville: "Tough loss [Rozsival, who had averaged 18:34 of ice time in the playoffs]. Doesn't look good."
Thomas Vanek: "It's really frustrating because it just didn't feel like a sweep. That's a good team over there. They know how to win. Sometimes it's just a matter of bounces. That's a team that's won two Stanley Cups. They know how to win. We didn't play well enough."
Mike Yeo: "Certainly, their big guys, they've got guys that are a little bit different from our guys, that's one thing. We've got guys that do tremendous things for us too. We might not have a guy that's going to get 100 points a year for us right now, but we have guys who are going to contribute offensively, but they play the game a certain way and that allows us to be successful as a team. Right now, we're a good team and we have to find a way to be the best team."
Devan Dubnyk: "Doesn't feel right. To be with the group that we have, to finish it that way, it just doesn't feel right."
